Evangelion Rebellion
by brassmonki
Summary: Sometimes the course of events is inevitable. But sometimes, just being there can change history. Continuation from episode 24. A new eva is revealed, causing war to erupt across the entire world.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Sometimes the course of events is inevitable. But sometimes, just being there can change history. Contiunation from episode 24. Will contain action, drama, and good ol'fashioned psychological trauma. Also contains 6th child.

Disclamier: I do not own evangelion, or any of the characters, places or names in the series. If the creators of the series wish it, I shall remove this story from circulation.

_Fate is like a set of traintracks. Once on them, there's not much you can do, but stay on._

_Luck is like a tree branch on those traintracks. Run into some luck, and prepare to be flung into the unknown._

**- **Anon

**Chapter 1 : Branch**

She lay on the hospital bed. Eyes as lifeless as ever. Still staring blindly at the ceiling, as though it held the answer to a question that longed to be answered. Various bags of chemicals were plugged into her, an effort to keep the red headed girl alive for a little while longer. Some were just good old fashioned glucose and water, for she could no longer be fed by conventional means. Sometimes the curse of eva has a light effect. But at times like this, it has a deep and altogether too harsh impact.

There was little sound in the blue bathed room. The moonlight offered the only illumination in this particular cell cut off from the world. A beep of the heart monitor was the most prominent noise, punctuating the general murmur of the tinny sound of music played through headphones. The murmur was that of a cello concerto, played simply because the boy liked the sound of it, not through any particular preference in style of music.

The boy who wore the headphones was in the standard apparel of the local high school. A simple combination of white shirt and black trousers, although they were heavily dishevelled from days of not bothering to change. So it went with his day to day life at the moment. There wasn't really anyone left to keep his appearance smart for.

The boy was sleeping in a chair, a few yards from the girl's bed, the cello concerto all but forgotten in his dreams. The feeling of doom and depression permeated the small box like a heavy fog.

The door cracked open, a shaft of light lancing into the room, piercing the cloud of oppression. The busy sounds of a hospital ward hard at work filtered in as the nurse stepped inside, a brief respite from the solitude. She shuffles across the room quietly, so as not to disturb the sleeping teenagers. The nurse had been working at this ward ever since the hospital was built, barely half a decade ago. Only recently had it been used for what it was intended for- the care of injured eva pilots.

She had seen a lot in her career here- this ward was often used to handle the spill over from other parts of the hospital during times of crisis. And those times had come faster and thicker in the last few months than they had a right to. But in all of her time at this ward, she had never seen a stranger sight than that of the brown haired boy keeping watch over his friend.

Usually she called her co-worker into the room to have a good chuckle at the sweet gesture. But lately she had been getting worried. It was starting to become a little disconcerting, the little boy hovering around the comatose girl at all hours of the day. She was certain this wasn't healthy. She hurriedly did her checks, making sure the little girl wouldn't slip from this world through medical failure.

The nurse hated doing this part of her rounds. This room always filled her with despair, and the boy's expression as he slept threatened to make her burst into tears every time she saw it.

She hurried out of the room, the sounds of life again filling the room for the briefest of seconds, before the door clicked closed. Other than the air being a good deal less chilly than before, nothing much had changed.

Nothing did change much for those afflicted with the curse of evangelion. The boy whimpered as the tape in his player stopped. On reflex, his hand brushed against the play button, starting the player on the other side of the tape. Anything, just to keep the nightmares at bay.

---------------------------

Halfway around the world, a battle was about to commence.

A collection of little rainy islands in the middle of the North Sea were preparing one of their darker secrets for war. The dark secret stood at the hieight of a tower block, and was no longer very secret from the millions of prying eyes that dotted the coastline. At closer inspection it was found that the secret was human shaped, or at least humanoid. Later it would be revealed that the secret was an Evangelion, built without public knowedge or consent, and whose designer was a complete mystery.

The eva was covered in a dull camoflauge green. Shoulder blades jutted into the sky, occasionally acting as lightning rods for the thunderstorm over head. In any other location in the world such a storm would be cause for panic. For this rainy little island, such storms as this were a weekly occurence. Rain water cascaded down the eva in great white rivers. They dug into the soil at the eva's feet gouging great holes in the ground, the fluid then spilling across the plains.

The eva was looking out to sea. Waiting.

They had recieved word from their spies in other countries about what was coming. They had watched it's progress on tiny screens connected to vast and complex surveilance devices. Very serious men in very smart and well kept uniforms had looked at each other with very solemn expressions. A decision had been reached. It was time to reveal their wild card to the world. They had hoped to learn more about their card, and how it would actually work in their hand. But, and on this all the very serious men had agreed, their conventional forces would not be able to counter this threat.

'Fighting fire with fire' had been the order of the day.

Not far from the eva in the now submerged city of Dover, a forward base had been set up in the submarine dock. The United Kingdom, as the collection of islands was still called, was now in the hands of an inexperienced group of engineers, battle tacticians and one fundamentally weak link in the chain of command. The weak link sat inside the eva. Staring at the viewer in front of him. Waiting.

Far away in the sea, against the downpour the weak link could see great white fountains of water erupt on the surface. That would be the UKs considerable submarine fleet engaging the target. It was a futile effort, meant only to discourage the invader. The submarines weapons had little hope of piercing the intruder.

As the explosions died down and the sun finally dipped below the horizon, a monstrous form began to make itself visible just under the waters surface. All involved in the defensive operation had three questions on their mind.

Why did it swim?

Why here?

Why now?

Alone amongst the torrent of rising emotions, there was a single note of absolute terror:

Can I do this?

----------------------------

In Japan the day dawned, much as it had for the past few millennia. Shinji was slowly dragged from his hellish sleep, much as he had been for the past few days. And his neck was painfully stiff, much as it had been every time he woke up in this particular room. He enjoyed these few seconds between sleep and wakefulness. In these brief moments, dreams were forgotten and harsh reality had yet to settle in. It was as close to nirvana as the boy could get these days.

His eyes opened, but he barely acknowledged his surroundings. He was usually in here now, barely stopping at Misato's apartment for more than a few minutes. The apartment used to feel like home. It used to be their refuge where they could let their guards down. But, with Asuka no longer providing her special spark, and with Penpen still with the Horakis, it seemed too empty. No longer a place for living. Even Misato preferred to work late then be there.

Almost casually he glanced at Asuka, still staring lifelessly at the ceiling. He had given up on hoping to see her eyes alive again. Hope, he had decided, was for other people. But despite his resolution to give up on her, he still longed to see her eyes light up whenever she proved she was better than someone. He was even beginning to want to see her angry again. Anything apart from this self-imposed death.

He checked the clock. It was still too early in the morning for him to do anything. Not that there was much for him to do. The city had been abandoned, the usually stubborn citizens of Tokyo-3 deciding that enough was enough. Nerv was still there, but all the shops and cafes that made the city worthwhile to live in had been shut down.

He couldn't even offer his services at Nerv. No angels left meant that demand for eva pilots was low. Much of he test work was being done with their primary test subject, better known as Rei Ayanami. As a consequence Shinji was pretty much left to his own devices. He had attempted to fill another job, but found that he could not bear to keep it, thoughts of how far he had fallen making him a liability. Nerv had designated a tutor for him to keep his studies up, but she only had time a few days in the week. And even then, he barely attended the classes. They were just for show anyway. As if there was a reason for him to study for the future.

He realised his SDAT player was sounding funny. He looked down as the music began to slow down. Notes deformed into nothingness, the original beat forgotten, the melody degenerating into a dull splurge. He sighed, and listened as the batteries finally died out. He stood up, and left. He very much doubted that any shops in the area would be open, much less sell batteries, but he clung to hope that they could be found somewhere.

Then again... hope was not for overly successful pilots who outlived their occupation.

----------------------------

Back at the UK the monsterous form broke the surface. A sickening giant red smile scanned the coastline. The smile was stuck to a pure white head, devoid of any other features. The disgustingly full red lips finally settled on the green eva, which was now in a classic kneeling marksman pose.

The green eva recieved the order to fire once the invader set foot on relatively dry land. The night had well and truly come now, any light offered by the moon drowned out by the storm clouds blanketing the battlefield. The green eva held what looked like a pistol, but in reality was a hastily modified battleship cannon. The pilot of the eva only had six shots. After that he would be forced to rely upon his knife. The pilot did not relish that thought.

Lage white arms erupted from the ocean, grabbing the coastline. This section of the coast used to be known as the White Cliffs. But Second Impact had raised sea levels so drastically, and the resulting climate shift had caused a profound increase in erosion. All that was left of the white cliffs was a submerged ledge barely twenty metres high. The invader hoisted itself over the once proud rockface, revealing another humanoid shape.

The men at the forward command station had anticipated this. They had known well in advance what was coming. They had known that these new production model evas were being manufactured, and some of them had even toured various factories where the parts were made. They had never dreamed that one would attack them, but they had planned for it all the same. It was all up to the pilot and artillery sections now- they could do no more from their position.

The eva opened fire, as did a vast assortment of artlillery pieces, mobile rocket launchers and self proppelled mortars. The first barrage connected solidly with the white giant, forcing the production model backwards into the sea. The accuracy of the heavy ordanance was a testament to the strict training regime the small country's0 army held itself to. A cheer rose from the less informed soldiers, as the white eva fell backwards into the Channel.

They were soon shouted down by their commanders, and as the production model once again rose kraken like from the waves they saw why. Rounds were reloaded, missile racks recharged, and even the green eva, the centre piece of the defensive line went through the complicated process of cocking the roughly made pistol.

The second barrage was barely acknowledged by the white monster, all the explosions blossoming a few metres in front of it, caught by an orange octaganol field.

The command to fire at will was given, causing the entire defensive line to suddendly break out into sporadic ordanace fire.

The white eva began to step towards the green eva, scarcely aware of the firepower being thrown it's way.

------------------------------

In Japan, Asuka found herself staring blankly at the ceiling. She was vaguely aware of things around her, but they were inky and far away. Like a blur only at a distance, sounds fuzzy and at low volume. In other words, it was like she was there but somewhere else.

The specifics of it were not important though. What mattered were the thoughts raging in her head. They raged up and down her already poorly treated mind. They raged across her memories. They raged across her dreams. Thoughts as numerous as a swarm rampaged across the pitiful creature that was Asuka Langley Sohryu.

Occasionally she would latch onto one and follow it's course as it dragged her through bad memories and crushing feelings. It was as if her inner view was magnified to make up for the blurring of her outside view. She was intimidated, overwhelmed and smothered all at once. Thoughts can be terrible things. These powerful creatures are tough to manage at the best of times, but for the poor girl now, even the slightest snippet of shame became a torrent of guilt.

There was a time, she recalled, when sitting in her eva made her feel invincible. There was nothing she couldn't do in it, nothing she couldn't face up to as long as she was in the pilot seat, the cool metal of the butterfly handles warming under her grip. There was a time when she felt in complete control of her own destiny, when she could really change things- really show people she could make a difference.

But now, that all felt like a dream. In her minds eye she was pinned in the entry plug, a prison from which she couldn't do anything. A place where the pain from the world could filter in and take hold of her. It felt empty. And cold. She thought it was her safe haven, where she could be protected in the arm's of her evangelion. It was cold to her now, wouldn't listen to her. She was helpless.

Just another damned doll in a pretty dress with no other purpose than to look nice. And when done with, thrown away like so much cheap firewood. Her eva had finished with her, and had thrown her away. It was the same rejection she had gone through her entire life. Only this time, the doll had broken.

She had once promised that she would live only for herself. But she had thrown that way when she agreed to pilot the eva. The evangelion became her life. She was the designated pilot of Unit 02, and no one else. It was hers and hers alone. Only she had misunderstood. Somewhere down the line she had become dependant on the eva. In doing so she became nothing more than a part of the eva, like the entry plug or shoulder blade. A part that could be easily replaced. She was the eva's possesion.

She once promised that she would always live by herself. Throughout her time in Germany she had stuck to that where possible. Going to college made it easier to stay away from her family. Not that she acknowledged the people with her name as family. Her family had died along with her mother, and not even the fact her father was still alive made her think any different. But, as soon as she moved to Japan, she had leapt at the chance to live with Misato and Shinji.

All of her promises, tossed aside like so much cheap sentiment.

And it was those promises which had kept her alive through the dark times of her childhood. Now that she had abandoned them, the strength that they carried had abandoned her as well.

For a while she had gotten by on the pride of being a good eva pilot. But as loss and defeat became a regular feature of her life her emotional barriers had weakened. And that angel wormed it's way in and caused devastation before it left.

She had realised just how desperately alone she was.

-----------------------------

The night-time english coastline was lit up by the the thunderous fire of artillery. Lightning strikes played about the two giants, as if divine will was trying to stop the coming battle. The green eva had used five of it's massive shots, and was now placing the last shell into place.

The white eva was now five hundred yards away, barely two paces to an eva. Stray shots ploughed up the earth around it, errant missiles igniting an inferno at it's feet. It ignored them. Any shots that struck home were brushed aside by the octaganol shield.

The pilot of the green eva was working fast. His hands flew across his console, desperately trying to manouver the giants finger's. He had not yet mastered delicate movements, and the titan fumbled the makeshift pistol in it's hands.

He was panicking. He knew he should try to keep a cool head. He knew his instructors would be telling him to calm down. He knew that his father would be advising him to relax and let the training kick in. He knew all this, but... his enemy was now only one pace away.

A massive clack and the battleship cannon was finally reloaded.

He had no time to congratulate himself, he had to aim. His eyes had never left the target, the great grinning face staring straight at him in return. It was so close now. He couldn't miss, not as this range. The green eva's arm rose shakily, the pilots own adrenaline fueled shudder transferring to the eva.

The white eva didn't stop him, even though it was now in arms reach. He pointed the pistol straight at the monsters head, and offered a silent prayer. He hoped beyond all hope that this shot would finish it.

He pulled the trigger, his eva simultaneously firing the pistol.

He could see it in slow motion. The round left the barrel, and the eva's strength was such that the pistol didn't even kick upwards. The round flew towards his foe, bourne on a cloud of flame.

The octaganol field appeared, deflecting the shot back into the countryside.

The pilot could only stare in disbelief as the pistol was swatted out of the defender's hand.

And even though his life depended on it, he could do nothing as the invaders hands wrapped themselves around the green eva's neck.

----------------------------

Back in Japan, Rei Ayanami slept.

And had nightmares.

All around her was a dark orange. She tried to move, but her limbs were sluggish to respond. It was like trying to move through water. The liquid caught in the back of her thoat, and she gagged. She coughed it out again, and felt her lungs empty.

They began to burn, and she knew she needed to breathe. She struggled forward, willing her arms and legs to propel her through the orange. She felt her legs brush against things unseen in the water, but all of which felt disturbingly familiar.

Her hand slapped onto an invisible wall in the orange. It was smooth, and extended in all directions. She pushed herself closer to the wall. Just beyond it she could see a room beyond the orange. There were people. One of them looked at her. And she felt like screaming.

Something grabbed her, and she was pulled away from the orange. The room, the people and everything fell away at her feet.

She found herself standing on a beam of brilliant blue light. She looked down the beam. Far away in the distance she could see a shape. The shape of a man. But there was a hole in his chest. It was facing away from her.

The beam of light was slowly being sucked in towards the man, disappearing down the hole. It was pulling her closer.

She jumped off the beam of light, and the man turned towards her.

Watching her fall.

She awoke with the sun on her face. She looked at her clock and saw that it was morning. Hearing the steady beat of the hammers in the nearby factories, she knew it was no longer a dream. She let go of the breath she didn't know she had been holding, giving relief to her burning lungs.

For her the nightmare had ended.

----------------------------

The white eva's hand started to dig it's way into the green eva's neck. There seemed to be nothing the pilot could do. The green eva pounded uselessly on the monster, desperately trying to break free. The ground troops around him had stopped firing, fearing they would hit their ally. The green eva was lifted into the air, completely helpless at the hands of the invader.

Lightning struck the pair, briefly outlining them in a nightmarish shillouette.

The white eva stopped squeezing as the green one went limp. It brought the eva's face closer to it's own horrifyingly large lips. The green eva's head was encased in a smooth grey helmet, covering all of it's features, but nevertheless the invader seemed to be looking for something.

It cast the green giant to the ground narrowly missing the troop formations around the eva, digging great furrows into the sodden earth. It looked to sky, and mighty wings erupted from it's back. The pure white pinions beat the air and it was soon flying, lost to sight as soon as it broke the cloud cover.

Inside the entry plug of the green eva, the pilot sat clutching his chest and gasping for air. As he coughed his raven black hair danced in the entry plug, his deep blue eyes wide with shock. His was only partially aware of the radio barking at him.

"Art! What happened!"

The pilot stared dumbly at the radio console.

"Art! Can you hear me? Damn it! Pilot Cooper Report!"

----------------------------

Twelve obelisks arranged in a circle. Black obelisks on black background. Featureless on the outside, like some bizarre space odyssey parody of Stonehenge. This was a meeting of Selee, a group so enigmatic that even conspiracy theorists had yet to dream them up. Needless to say, the few members of the council whose job it was to keep the public unaware were very good at their job.

But this meeting wasn't over anything so trivial as keeping a few dull witted nations under thumb. This was about a severe breach in security. Not even the supposed delving of the Japanese Intelligence agent were on this scale. Somehow, an insignificant nation had managed to bypass all their security checks, and produce something on which Selee should have the monopoly.

Not only that, but something that should never happen had happened. One of their own evas had taken actions not ordered. The attack on the UK was not Selee sanctioned, and it was worrying that the colossus had gone on it's own initiative.

An emergency meeting had been called- something which had not occurred within living memory. There were calls for increased security. There were calls for the removal of all higher command structures and replacement with more secure chains. There were calls for evaluations of all strategies from this point forward.

But more often than not, the discussion turned back to a question which could prove to be the death knell for their plans.

"How much do they know?"

At the centre of the obelisks an image of the green eva firing at the once Selee operated eva was slowly rotating.

Selee Seven responded, "We cannot know. We need to completely change our plans."

"Do not be foolish. To go against the Scrolls at this point could be dangerous..." countered Selee Eleven.

"True. But action must be taken," placated Selee Eight.

"And action will be taken," reassured Selee Two. They had names, and once long ago they had used them to talk to each other. But now names were so often replaced and changed that original identities were forgotten.

"A change in policy is needed," offered Selee Five. Of the assembled members he was one of the oldest, and most respected.

"Agreed," affirmed Selee Three, the youngest.

"Why stop at policy? Our plans may have been breached. We need to change direction entirely if we are to survive," responded Selee Seven, anger creeping into the monoliths voice.

"Silence."

It was a command not even the highly arrogant members could ignore. Selee One continued.

"We shall observe for now."

"Do we know why the eva went AWOL," enquired Selee Ten.

"It seems that the pilot wanted to investigate something..." said Selee Four.

"Did you know he wanted to?"

"There were clues, but we never dreamed he would take independant action."

Selee 1 spoke again, "Find him. If Ikari and his organisation catches him it will only increase their power."

"What about the plans we had for them?" inquired Selee Ten. Of all the members he was the one with the most tactical experience. As such he was invaluable to the inner politics of the council. He had been planning the actions against Tokyo-3 ever since the city was constructed.

"Postponed for now."

There was a long silence as each member considered the gravity of the situation. Each member, even the relatively silent voices considered voicing their concerns over the direction of the action to be taken. Each member threatened to question whether inaction was action at all.

But as the obelisks faded, one by one, each member remembered why the voice behind Selee One lead the organisation. After all, he had created them, and had been leader. For so very long.

----------------------------

Asuka slept.

She could tell when she was awake and when she was a sleep. When she was awake, the world was greyed out and fuzzy, like she was experiencing life through a thick gauze. When she was asleep, images became sharper, things were more focussed, and her thoughts became much more powerful.

Fear.

It was something that often skirted around her thoughts. She always dismissed her fear. She had decided that it was just not her. Being afraid, cowering from challenges, not getting things done... she hated the very thought of it.

Why then was she feeling it now?

Shinji appeared in front of her. That was not uncommon. These days she was often tormented by the people she knew.

"You are afraid," he said, in tones too harsh and commanding for Shinji.

"No..." she responded in a manner that was far too weak for her.

Misato swirled into view behind her.

"You are afraid," the harsh commanding tone was not as misplaced coming from her.

"No..." came Asuka's pathetic reply.

Her father, and the woman he had married after her mother's death snapped into existance to her right.

"You are afraid."

This time she could only wimper.

A shadow grew on the ground to her right. The shadow developed into one she recognised instantly. Afterall, she had been piloting it since she was a child.

"You are afraid," the voice boomed behind her. It did not trouble her that her eva spoke. In her dreams, even the dolls could speak.

"I'm not... not..." she struggled out her denial.

But, here and now, what sense was there in a flat out denial. There was no image for her to keep here, no persona she forced herself to live up to. There was only the truth and what she was brave enough to face up to.

"I... am..."

It was not terror. Terror made your heart pound, and made your blood boil. In a way it was similar to being very excited. But this feeling, although it was debilitating, wasn't paralytic terror. No, it was a dull worry. It grew and grew, until it became a tidal wave of...

"I'm..."

It was always there. At the back of her mind. Ever since her mother' death... no before that. Not much longer before that. Barely a day. When they told her she was to be the pilot for Unit 02. That was when it started. Because, although they had told her she was the only person who could do it, although they had told her how special she was, she knew that they could take it away from her. After all, they had taken her mother from her. It was always there... that threat... that...

"I...can't be..."

But that was okay. She could live with that shadow on her heart. It wasn't the only thing that defined her back then. She had school, and she excelled at her studies. The people around her were so proud that she went to a university well before her time. However, when she moved to Tokyo-3, when she moved in with Misato and Shinji, the eva became the only thing that defined her. It grew exponentially from that point on. Rivalry with the other pilots only exaserbated matters. The shadow crept further across her soul. That shadow of...

"I..."

And the people she had let into her life. She had done it to herself. She had let Shinji, Misato, Hikari, and the others become important to her. And as they became more important, the threat of rejection became ever more powerful. And, as though to punish herself for doing so, she had thrust them away, knowing that if she did they would abandon her. Because although she knew that would hurt terribly it was better than the... than...

"I... am afraid..."

A hand was placed on her shoulder. It was warm, comforting and strong. To Asuka's mind, even though it fit on her shoulder, it felt like it was huge, as though it contained more than it's physical boundaries would allow.

A voice rolled out behind her, "What are you afraid of?"

The voice was threatening, yet gentle. It was fierce, yet welcoming. It had an animalistic edge to hit that made it seem as though a lion had growled it out to her, but it was friendly. She thought about it's question.

At the root of it all, she was afraid to let herself go. She was afraid to be completely reliant on others. Because at some point they will decide they will no longer need her, and she will be forgotten. Her own mother had done that to her. Clearly if her own mother had abandoned her, what hope could she have for others?

"I'm afraid of..."

"I heard you, you don't have to repeat yourself."

There was silence for sometime after, as if the figure behind her was contemplating. It was beginning to dawn on Asuka that the figure behind her was hauntingly familiar. The hand on her shoulder, the feeling of warmth... they were all so... familiar.

Finally the voice spoke.

"You once said, you would live for me. You can again."

In this place, there was nothing but he truth, and what she was brave enough to face up to.

"You have to remember that no matter who rejects you, there will always be someone that needs you. Even if the whole world rejects you, there is one person who will always be there for you. And even if at times it seems lonely, you owe it to them to keep going."

Shinji, Misato, her father and his wife all winked out of existence.

"It's okay to let them in. It's okay for them to reject you. As long as you remember, you can always find new companions."

In her dreams, there was only her and her thoughts. Asuka turned around, and looked into the dazziling cocky smile of her mirror image.

"Have you remembered who you are?" she asked herself.

She nodded, smiling.

"I think you should be able to hear your eva calling now you've remembered who it's calling for."

"Is that all it took? Just finding myself again?"

"Not really... but it's a start. The rest you'll have to work out as you go along."

Asuka opened her eyes.

It took a while for her eyes to adjust to the light in the room, but gradually the images became sharper. An unfamiliar cieling. Faint smell of disinfectant. Must be a hospital.

She dragged herself to a sitting positoin, various wires and tubes protesting as she did so. A wire popped loose, and a quiet alarm started. She idly wonderd if it was something important. She looked down at her body, hiding ashamedly underneath the bed sheet. She frowned, wondering how long it would take to get her figure back.

The door burst open and a squad of doctors and nurses charged in. A lot of people were going to be upset with her for doing this to herself. But at least...

It was a start.

**To be continued...**

Author's notes: Thank you, and welcome to this 6th child fan fiction. This is in fact the 4th re-write of my very first fanfiction of the same name, the third being a bit of a flop. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since I started this, but I think it's perfect now. The threads of plot that had been lost in the original have been rewoven back into the story line, but presented in a much better way. Also, all of my old readers (all two of them) have probably moved on by now. If those two are still here... sorry I left it at book two. I lost my way and let the story get out of control.

Art Cooper is the 6th child in this fanfiction. He's a character I've spent years thinking about, and just as long developing him. I've tried to distill his core belief down to one sentence, and only recently have I been able to do that. I found it had become remarkably close to Shinji's mantra of not running away, but it has a subtle and profound difference. Keep reading and hopefully you'll catch it. For the record, it's okay if you prejudge him because he's an original character, so please flame away. I look forward to them :-) But hopefully there will be enough story line from the other three main characters so that even if you hate Art, you'll still have something to read.

Asuka's reason for waking up might seem selfish, but she always struck me as having a very important self image. All her troubles seemed to stem from that self image crumbling around her. It's not the whole of the problem, but like Asuka tells herself, 'It's a start.' And for a first chapter, that's all I can ask for.

I'm looking for a pre-reader. In case it's not too obvious, I'm terrible at spotting my own mistakes. E-mail me or say in a review if you want the job.

In many ways I'm a petty, petty man. And as a petty man I like reviews of any kind. Even flames. So please review and make this petty person's day


	2. Chapter 2

_If you think not, you shall blossom._

_Nor shall you blossom if you think. _- Anon

**Chapter 2: Tomorrow's Perfume**

Asuka sat in the plug, idly waiting for the test to begin. Her plug suit was a little wrinkled in places, despite the suction action forcing it to cling to her body.

The cause was simple. The suit was made for a thicker Asuka, one with a little more meat than she currently had. Weeks of malnutrition and inaction had left her in a rather sorry state, a far cry from the tough, and relatively strong girl she used to be.

In the pilot locker room she had been critically examining her body in a full length mirror before putting on her scarlet suit.

The doctors and physiotherapists had done a good job getting her to her current level of fitness, but this was not something she was just going to bounce back out of. She was a shadow of her former self.

Her body was frighteningly thin, and her ribs stuck out unashamedy from under her breasts, which had also lost a little of their fullness. Her legs were decidedly boney, and her knees looked fragile in a knobbly kind of way. Even her arms looked like sticks wrapped in paper.

Asuka had always been proud of her body. She had always been pretty proud of everything about herself until a few months ago. Seeing herslef like this was bruising her already ravaged ego.

Thankfully the changes to her face were slight, so clothes could cover up most of the damage she had done to herself. Her eyes were a litle more gaunt now, although it was impossible to tell if that was just due to weight loss or if her experiences had permamently marked her. Time would tell, and now she had a lifetime to find out in.

"We're going to start the synch test now Asuka," came a familiar voice through the radio.

Asuka took a deep breath.

This was her first contact with her eva since she had gone crazy. She freely admitted that she had gone insane for a few weeks. Just saying it like that seemed to make the nightmare a little less real, like it was the narrative of a fictional character rather than herself.

Her heart was beating a little faster than usual, and the fluid around her tasted a little more salty than usual. There was a very faint stinging sensation in her eyes. These little signs were the closest you ever came to sweating inside the plug.

She shunted the questions about whether or not she could do this from her mind, and focused on the task at hand. Self doubt could come after the results.

She breathed out again.

"Ready."

* * *

Shinji leaned on the railing on some random catwalk deep within the bowels of the geofront. His little cassette player, now devoid of electric life, lay useless in his hands.

He heard approaching footsteps, and looked up to see Rei walking towards him. Well, not Rei. Or at least not the Rei he knew. Or at least not entirely the Rei he knew. Well, whatever, Rei but not Rei. Ayanami then.

"Ikari. Why are you down here?"

Some things never changed. "Ayanami. I'm down here because there's nowhere else to go, and nothing else to do," he mimicked her dispassionate tones.

The not-Rei forwned in a hauntingly familiar way sending spasms across Shinji's heart, "We were meant to report to our tutor today. You didn't come."

And again, the same strangely formal way of speaking followed up by an almost normal voice. It was maddening, even more so now that he knew what she was, and the meaning of being replaceable.

He turned away from her, and shoved his useless cassette player in his pocket, "What's the point Ayanami? It's not like she's a real teacher."

"First Lietennant Ibuki gave a good lesson today-"

"It doesn't matter, okay!" Shinji shot back in frustration.

The girl he hardly knew went suddendly silent, and her expression went blank. Guilt coursed through Shinji for the thousandth time today.

"I'm sorry."

Ayanami said nothing.

Shinji collapsed onto his arms, leaning heavily on the railing. Thousands of thoughts had been rampaging across his mind for weeks now, and had finally coalesced into one great feeling.

He turned his head to see the familiar stranger a few yards down the cat walk. Still wearing the school uniform, just like him, even though the school was most defintitely closed. God, they were pathetic. Clinging to these clothes like a life raft of normality in the face of outrageous reality.

He looked away, "I have to get out of here Ayanami."

He didn't see her face, and only heard her question, "What are you saying?"

'_I'm saying I love you.'_

And there it was again. The small tuft of hair, the almost toy like feel in his hand. The slight pressure. The way it all simply fell apart.

He squeezed his eyes tight, refusing to follow that memory again.

"There's a new pilot coming. Misato told me. He can do all the tests now. The Angels are gone, and there's no reason for me to stay here." He looked up at her once again blank expression, "No reason at all," he added, turning away.

"What about Unit 01?" Rei asked. If Shinji had been capable of hearing past his own clamouring thoughts at that point, he might have noticed the desperate edge creeping into her voice.

But his emotions and feelings were overiding every part of his soul. It had been a long time coming, but the boy who had clung so dearly to the hope it would all end soon, was coming to a realisation that now, he could simply walk away.

And if anyone had won their freedom from the eva's he surely had. The things he had been through would take a lifetime to forget, if that.

"To hell with that thing," he said, with a calm venom his voice.

They stood in scilence for some minutes, Rei trying to think of something to say, and Shinji wondering when the copy of the girl he knew would leave.

Eventually Shinji straightened up, and simply walked away, Rei watching his back go further and further into the distance.

* * *

Misato's office was one of the great wonders of Nerv.

When considering her personality and homelife, everyone assumed that her office would be a mess of discarded proposals and paper coffee cups, with great stacks of unfinished paper work, and dog eared documents currently being worked on.

The truth was much stranger.

Her office floor was spotless, and her work surfaces were free from the usual office detritus of pens and loose pieces of stationary. Her desk only had a lamp and an in/out box, with crisp and undamaged documents ready to be worked on, or taken to their next destination.

She was a major now, so perhaps it was not strange for her to show a certain level of proffessionalism. But this office was like it beonged to a completely different woman. It had no personal effects, and nothing to detract from the harsh military nature of the room.

Misato leaned back in her chair. She had come here after the plug test to browse through the initial reports and get some of her paper work done before her in box was full of her subordianates' beaucracy, all demanding equal attention.

Plug tests for the pilots may just be an hour or two long, but for Misato it was a day long headache, and these days made even longer by Ritsuko's absence. She hated to admit it, but her old friend could really streamline a lot of the procedures that made both their jobs a hasssle.

She was largely done with the early synch test results, and was now turning her attention to the dossiers on the new British pilot that would be arriving in the near future.

His photo was a little unremarkable. Dark brown hair, rather uninteresting blue eyes when compared to Asuka's. Back when she had been happier with herself, Asuka's eyes had caused more heads to turn than even her red hair, something that Misato had always been slightly jealous of.

But this kid didn't seem anything special. Maybe he would be cute in the right clothing and with a decent hair cut, but his current straight, short cropped mop did little to help his features.

She glanced over his background.

Good grades. A's in most subjects, except for Art and English, which she assumed actually meant literature. He had won a number of school awards, with the majority of them being for skill with languages.

He spoke French and Spanish almost fluently, and had some grounding in German, Arabic and a little Mandarin. His Japanese was meant to be at a pretty good level, and he was currently undergoing some classes to bring it up to a working level.

Misato frowned. Why was he so good at languages?

She read on to his parents background. Both dead. Ouch. He was currently living with his uncle in the country somewhere in the middle of England, a banker who spent most of his time in London.

His father had been an accountant with a firm that went under soon after he died, and his mother was a Proffessor of Linguistics at a university. That explained the languages.

There was nothing there to connect the kid to the government, nothing to connect him to eva research at all. No wonder the Marduk institute had missed him out as a potential eva pilot. The British Army had probably just picked him up as some random child that wouldn't really be missed by anybody if something went wrong during testing.

Misato sighed, and tossed the document onto her desk. She reached down and opened her drawer, causing a minor eruption of papers stuffed inside, pens and paperclips cascading to the floor. She took out a smallish teddy bear, paced it behind her neck and leaned back full onto the chair, to take a short nap.

Some character traits always float to the surface eventually.

* * *

It was early in the afternoon for the rainy little island in the North Sea, where a boy anxiously packed his bag for a journey he was sure would change his life forever.

But for the large island adrift in the Pacific half the world away, night had closed in, and clouds circled the coasts, expectant and pregnant with rain and thunder.

Warning klaxons had sounded, messages had been sent, and defenses hastily thrown up. But this country was used to this kind of action, and was well practiced in matters of defence.

It had been a long time since an invader of this size had come from the sea, but what seemed like ancient plans had been brought back from the tactical libraries. Although a good chunk of the city had been wiped out, and the usual evacuation plans had been ommitted, soldiers and Nerv personell went about their business with a confidence born from experience.

This city was indeed well prepared for attacks like this.

The monster which now stood under fire at the city gates had been spotted in the ocean by a UN submarine, and preparations had been done calmly.

It was the same white eva that had attacked the submerged cliffs around Dover. The scars from the initial barrage were clearly visible, blackened scorch marks and circular patterns grouped tightly around the giants body.

It stood, almost ignorant of the automatic defences laying their ordanance into it, bathed in the orange glow of it's AT field. It was patient. It waited. It knew what lay below the surface of the city.

All this was lost on Shinji though, as he desperately pulled on the control sticks of the Eva, panic overiding any previous thoughts he had of leaving.

"Move! Move! Why won't you just move?!"

But the eva did not repsond. He couldn't feel the connection like before. It was just so quiet inside the plug. And it was just so cold.

Misato's voice came on the radio, "Shinji? What's wrong?" she asked in an urgent tone.

Shinji gave the control stick one last ferocious tug, before collapsing forward, his strength suddendly leaving him. He felt so tired. Tired of the eva, tired of panic, tired of guilt, tired of life in general.

"It won't move," he said quietly, numbness spreading from his gut outwards to his limbs.

"Maya, check the synaptic relays!"

"I've been runnig the diagnostic programs non-stop, there's nothing wrong!"

"What about power?"

"Power going in is fine, but the eva's just not taking it!" came a man's voice, which was probably Aoba's.

"What about-"

"It just, won't move." Shinji cut in with forced calmness. The numbness was being swallowed up by frustration, a great rising tidal wave of bile, clawing and burning in his throat.

"I know Shinji, we're trying to find the problem. Try-"

"You're not listening!" Shinji shouted, "I. Can't. Make it. Move!" he yelled with all the force and venom he could muster, his frustration and rage at being forced yet again into this situation fueling his scream.

His voice reverberated around the plug, and stunned the entire command centre, once a babble of people working under pressure, into shocked scilence.

He looked up, and saw a stunned Misato. Guilt washed away all his anger, making his body feel heavier than lead. His shoulders slumped. It felt like too much effort to hold up his head. It flopped down to his chest.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

Misato regined her composure, "Prep Unit 02 for launch. Get Asuka out there."

"Yes Ma'am!"

Her voice softened, "Shinji-"

But he had already shut off the radio.

His humiliation was now complete. After all he had been through, after every struggle, after every drop of blood on his hands, now he couldn't even make his Eva move.

Now, when it was another monster he could fight, he couldn't even lift a finger to attack it. He couldn't even shuffle one toe towards it. He couldn't even force his weapon of war to glance at it.

Why now? Why not with Touji? Why not with Karou? Why could he move then, and not now?

The answer was simple to his mind. The eva, Nerv, his father, Misato, Rei, the not-Rei, Asuka, everything about his life in Tokyo-3 was his own personal torture. When a hero in a book goes through all his suffering he is rewarded at the end. But Shinji merely had more challenges, and more pain to walk through.

He had had enough.

He shut down the power systems around him, and waited for the plug to be retracted out of the back of this purple demon. So he could face his humiliation again in front of the people he could no longer protect.

The plug went pitch black, and he sat back in the pilots chair, and folded his arms. He shut his eyes against the darkness, anger playing freely across his expression.

"To hell with you," he whispered.

He could almost feel something break as the plug shuddered in the retraction mechanism. And as the plug was pulled free from the body, he felt something let go inside of him, leaving a hollowness. It was like a sudden release of pressure. It almost hurt a little.

But there was also some relief.

* * *

Asuka gripped the controls in her feeble hands, adrenaline pumping raw strength into her fingers. Her skin was whitely taut across her knuckles, and she knew that panic and fear were causing her to react this way.

She forced herself to relax.

"Okay, Misato, let's do this!" she yelled, injecting more confidence into her voice than she truly felt.

Misato gave her a worried expresio across the radio, and hesitated.

"I'm ready! Let's go!" Asuka yelled again, a little more desperately this time.

Misato scowled. Asuka knew she had no choice.

"Launch Unit 02!"

Asuka felt the rush of the launch catapult propelling her upwards towards her enemy. Her opponent. She would be alone this time, and she couldn't help but remember what happened to her the last time she faced off against a foe alone.

She shook those memories from her head. Now was not the time. Focus!

The elevator crashed into place, the hyrdaulics just catching the full force of the rising eva. Locks were released in great gouts of released pressure, and Asuka felt the sudden freedom in the eva's shoulders.

Her score in the mornings synch test hadn't been good. She had never gotten a score that bad, even when she first set out on the path of becoming an elite pilot.

She willed the eva forward, and even now everything felt clunky, every action forced. It was like trying to control a robot made from jelly using cheeswire. Control kept slipping in and around her, and she could only make it move on average in the direction she wanted.

She saw her opponent at the cities edge.

The clouds had finally moved in land, and a light drizzle had started up, removing even the star and moonlight. The white behemoth was lit up by floodlights manned by Nerv and JSDF soldiers, each one of the expecting her to bring forth victory with her eva's hands.

The sight of the white eva only hightened her fear and anxiety of performance. She could feel her last meal threatening to violently explode from her throat. She clamped down on her emotions, and tried to remember the feel of her old confidence. It wasn't working.

She shook herself again, and took a rifle from the nearby weapon rack.

The white eva watched her impassively, as if she wasn't even what it had come for, and was only mildly interested in what she did.

"Centre the target in the circle. Pull the switch," she murmured to herself.

Her red eva brought the rifle to bear, automatic systems loading and cocking the rifle. The muzzle made a clear line to the white eva, and it's almost comical grin. It's expression filled her with revulsion.

She took a deep breath. "Go Asuka," she whispered.

And pulled the trigger.

What happened next all happened in a blur. The bullets shot out towards her target. They bounced of the AT field. Suddednly it was on top of her eva, clawing for her eva's throat. She flailed her robots arms, and somehow managed to break free.

She tried to run her eva to a more secure position to shoot from, but lost control when she suddednly realised her eva had dropped the gun. The titan crashed to the ground with stunning force, breaking the glass in the buildings around her not lucky or important enough to be brought into the geo fronts safety.

She pushed the eva's arms forward, but the white grinning monster was again on top of her back, encircling it's arms around her throat. She clawed at the arm, but she was just too weak to pull her eva free. In desperation she let off the close quarter counter measures in the eva's shoulder blades and the spikes plowed uselessly into the neighbouring buildings.

She jerked her head up, cracking the back of her skull against it's face, and the arm hold loosened slightly. Taking advantage she sprang to her feet, and sprinted a few steps, spinning around again to face it. The white eva regained it's composure, and settled into a balanced stance and came slowly towards her.

Asuka grinned. She wasn't down yet, and this guy was now starting to take her seriously. She adopted a familiar stance of her own, and pulled the vibro knife ffrom her shoulder blade, holding it out in front of her, beckoning her opponent to make the first move.

At a short distance in front of her it suddendly charged, and Asuka let it come full on, letting her eva rock back to the ground, simultaneously plungng the vibro knife into it's AT field, and kicking upwards, sending her foe flying.

She sprang up again, ready to face it, and suddendly realised how light and easy the controls were. She tried flexing her arm, and wathed in amazement through the view screens as her Eva did the same.

She also became aware that Misato had been screaming at her through the radio throughout the entire match.

"Yeah, what's up Misato?" she said lightly, again shocked at how naturally the lightness was coming to her.

"Asuka! Your synch ratio is climbing at a crazy rate! Are you okay? Still in control?"

Asuka gave her a little hop, "Never better." Her opponent got to it's feet. "Excuse me. Gotta fight."

Euphoria poured out from her heart, as she rushed towards the white monster. She knew now what she had been doing wrong for so long.

Focusing on her failure, she had been forcing herself to act differently, to try and control the eva in a different way. That was never how it was. The eva had always felt like a part of her, and she had lost sight out that. She had been trying to move her left hands fingers by pushing them around with her right hand.

The eva was an extension of herself, of her body. She didn't need to worry about synch ratios as long as it moved like she wanted to.

The plug actually started to feel warmer around her. She no longer saw view screens, just the outside. She barely noticed her movements as she pummled the white monster in front of her, gouging and slashing at it.

She wanted to scream and sing she was so happy. Her smile wasn't like her usual triumphant smirk, it was almost child like, and innocent. An expression of true joy at finding something like an old friend.

But there was still something missing.

Ah. Yes.

The white eva planted a round house kick at her. She moved her arm to block, but the kick never landed. It stuck itself in the orange octaganol glow of her AT field.

Asuka gave the monster her trademark victory grin.

"It's been fun. But I'll be winning now."

She wasn't entirely sure of her exact movements. All she was aware of was breezing past the monsters AT field, using her knife to dig away flesh before plunging it into a small ruby coloured shell in the things chest.

As soon as the S2 organ was cracked, the released energy exploded.

A fitting end to Asuka's true return.

* * *

Gendo sat in darkness, leaning on his desk, his hands in front of his face, in a pose that many around the base had adopted because it was so intimidating when he used it on them.

He waited. This was going to be fun for him.

The first obelisk appeared in front of him, and began speaking angrily, "You do not summon the council, Ikari!"

Gendo remained silent. What he had to say was for the chairman to hear in front of all the members of the council.

The rest of the obelisks filtered in, all with their own variations on why he shouldn't summon the council, but he did not care. He logged what they were saying in his memory and would analyse them later for tid bits of information that could prove valuable.

These were powerful men, and as such had the egos of five year olds. Each was so concerned with his own self importance and role in the future that dealing with them was tiresome and dull. It took nothing to manipulate them. Their hooks and carrots were plain for all to see, and they indulged in their own magnificience. They rarely got their hands dirty in a physical sense, and ironically, although they had brought about some of the most deplorable acts of inhumanity, they themselves were largely innocent.

Except for the chairman. Except for Kheel.

Gendo actually liked Kheel. In him he had found a kindred spirit, and a mutual loathing for each other as only two similar people with the same goal could have.

Kheel understood how to run an organisation, and also understood that any means to maintain it could be justified in the long term. The rest of the council might guiltily order the silencing of a potential risk, but both Gendo and Kheel merely accepted it as the next step.

The organisation, and the prize at the end. That was all that mattered.

Finally Selee 1 appeared before him and spoke.

"Ikari. Why have you called council?"

It was simple, and direct. And so Gendo responded in kind.

"Today a Selee production model eva attacked, and was destroyed at Nerv headquaters in Tokyo-3."

The council waited in silent anticipatioin.

Kheel responded by going from the voice-only obelisk to the holographic projection Gendo was using.

"That is regrettable."

Gendo raised a theatrical eyebrow, "Regretable that it attacked, or was destroyed."

"Both," repsonded Kheel calmly.

Gendo smiled under his hand, "I would like to know what the council intended by attacking my organisation."

Kheel was silent for a few seconds. Gendo knew he was weighing up his options. His response now could give away some information about the operating procedures of the production models, or even a free admission of guilt or incompetence.

It really didn't matter what he said. The outcome would be the same.

"The attack was not council sanctioned, and was the result of certain rogue elements," Kheel admitted.

Gendo knew better than to push for the meaning of rogue elements. He could guess that something had gone wrong with Selee's copy of his dummy plug program. The fools never understood the true science behind it.

"This is the same rogue element that led to the attack on the european country?"

"Yes."

Gendo lowered his hands and dropped his smile. "I'm afraid that Nerv can no longer be associated with such a dangerous organisation as yours."

Kheel was not surprised, "You understand what you are saying, Ikari." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yes."

"Very well."

Gendo nodded, and his hologram vanished.

The council erupted in a clamour of discontent. Kheel listened impassively, regretful that he no longer had verbal duels with Ikari to look foward to, and merely had to contend with this rabble of egotism.

He raised a hand to scilence them, "Gentlemen, we have suffered a blow here, and must begin damage control."

"Damage control?!" roared on of the obelisks, "We must repsond to this insult!"

"We could begin the attack on Nerv now. It was timetabled for this week," offered Selee 2.

"We can't. Our resources have been removed," replied Selee 3.

"What? An army can't just up and disappear!" said Selee 10.

"No, but the attack on the United Kingdom, and the subsequent treaties and agreements between Nerv and their King have changed the landscape. The Japanese government is unwilling to risk angering the British. They are one of the chief importers of Japanese goods and their investments are critical for Japan. We can no longer use the JSDF," Selee 3 informed.

"What about the production model evangelions? I have a plan that only uses them."

Selee 4 cut in, "Since the prime conciousness has shifted the entire dummy system is in shambles. I can give you one, maybe two useable ones in a few weeks, but it'll take some months of reprogramming to-"

"Okay, what about mercanaries?" Selee 10 continued.

"Far too expensive," said Selee 5, "We need all of our resources to maintain our current holdings in light of Nerv's removal. Ikari has effectively stolen some of our most valuable assets by doing this."

"Commendable," sneered Selee 7.

"Quite."

Kheel spoke, and they all listened, "As I have said. Prepare for damage control. Ikari will strike at us soon, and there will be some unexpected twist to the strike. Be cautious."

And with that, his hologram vanished as well.

**To be continued...**

Whelp, a few years later and the second chapters up. I'm not going to apologise for being late, because I never gave a schedule in the first place, and any apology would be, lets face it, pointless anyway, and would not give you back any months you spent waiting.

Well, sorry anyway.

Anyway, I'm trying a new method of writing to get this all out as quick as I can. Sort of a creative blitzkrieg. Next chapter up fairly soon.

Ok, I'm still looking for a beta-reader. I don't even have a working spell checker on this machine (weird these days I know), so everything is pretty much done by my own knowledge of English.

Still a petty man, and will accept any review of any flavour, from anybody.


	3. Chapter 3

_Ah, Toby! You always were the most reliable soldier I had. Come here, I have some tuna flakes for you._

_- Anon_

**Chapter 3 - Meetings**

High above the Earth, preparing for it's drop back down to the ground, a high altitude transport plane carried Nerv personnell on what would be their first planned action outside of Japan.

Asuka stared at the bright red neural clips in her hands. She had always worn them, mostly to show off that she was a pilot. She had always been proud of them. They were like her badge of honour, and she wore them even if they clashed with her other clothes.

She would wear them again now. She had earned it through defeating the production model eva.

Asuka looked over from her seat to see a snoring Misato. The flight was only going to be about four hours long, but Misato had taken a few sleeping pills anyway. Asuka wondered what good it would do to get a a few hours sleep so early in the morning.

They were heading to America. Commander Ikari had told everyone that they were officially at war with some organisation, or something, and that they were going to mount a preemptive strike against one of their facilities.

Asuka didn't really cae all that much. She was too pre-occupied with her own role in what was about to happen to think about the 'why's. Misato had taken her aside after the Commander had finished his short speech, and told her that what was about to happen was not going to be fun, and she would have to do some awful things. She would have to kill people.

Asuka felt bad about that, she really did, but like she told Misato, "I can't not pilot the eva now."

Wonder girl was left behind to run synch tests with Unit 01, and to defend the city if it was needed. They would meet the new British pilot in America. Her eva was aready en route via some secret path that not even Misato knew about.

Everything was proceding forward with some kind of strange inevitability.

Asuka sighed and looked out of the window, feeling the slight change in acceleration of the plane as it began it's descent. The world was relatively peaceful up here, and unless you knew where to look you couldn't really tell where the scars from Second Impact were.

She thought about Shinji.

The way he was locked up in his room all day. The way he would no longer even look in her direction, no matter how much she yelled at him. His pathetic puppy smile now transfigured into a permament scowl, as if he was angry at everything.

She hated it, but could do nothing. She didn't know how to react to him these days, and her old habits were just making him scowl more. Misato's apartment was so full of bottled up tension that none of them stayed in there for very long, and they never even ate together.

She leaned her head against the cool plastic of the interior window, and stared forlornly at the world below her.

The truth was, she just wanted someone to talk to now.

* * *

Shinji fidgeted on the reclining sofa.

Gendo in his infinite wisdom, and possibly, thought Shinji, some last remaining shreds of parenthood, had sent him to a psychiatrist for a full mental evaluation. This was a little unfair on Gendo, but Shinji was in no mood to be fair to his father right now, a fact which had been underlined several times by the woman trying to get him to talk.

He looked around the room while the doctor paused to scribble down some notes about his current state of mind. Wood panels were verywhere, and there was the faint smell of fresh varnish. The bookshelves only housed a few thick volumes and reference books. This was a new place, and she probably had not been practicing in this room for very long.

The doctor noticed him looking around, "Do you like my room?"

Shinji shook his head, "It looks new," he said by way of explanation.

Again the pencil scribbled down something, leaving Shinji wondering just what he had given away. "Yes. My old practice was destroyed in the last Angel attack. This place was only finished a week ago."

Shinji nodded, unaware of the shadow that had crossed across his face when she mentioned the angel attack.

"You're actually my first patient since I reopened."

Shinji glanced at the cieling, "I hope my father is paying you well for the privelage."

The pencil made the underlining motion that Shinji had started to recognise whenever he mentioned his father.

He guessed the doctor was one of the old citizens of Tokyo-3 that were slowly returning to the city once Nerv had given the all clear about the victory over the Angels. He heard that there were celebrations all over the world, but life in Nerv had pretty much continued as usual. There were some contruction workers in the city, but these days he rarey left the geofront, and even if he did, he barely registered what was going on around him.

He sighed. He had been here for a long time now, and had answered some fairly irrelevant questions about Misato, Asuka and school, or lack there of. He really did not see what any of this had to do with why he could not pilot the eva. He rolled his head to look at the doctor, sitting in her arm chair, note pad on her knee, pencil poised, ready to map out his mind.

He idly wondered what good it was supposed to do.

"Okay Shinji, we're nearly done."

"Okay," he replied, in a voice he hoped didn't betray the relief he felt.

"I want to talk about Rei Ayanami."

"Oh." His relief vanished.

"You don't want to?" the doctor asked.

"Not really..."

"Why not?"

"Um..."

"It's okay, take your time."

Shinji gathered his thoughts for a minute. He had not really confronted his feelings on the whole matter fully, and he really did not want to just yet. His hesitation was not about that though. He was merely unsure of how much he could tell. Well to hell with it, if his father did not want him giving away Nerv secrets he should not have sent him to this woman. But Misato's career also hung in the balance, so...

"I'm not sure how much I can tell you."

The doctor nodded, "The Nerv security office did tell me this was one area I shouldn't talk about. So naturally I want to talk about it."

Shinji looked at her. And went on looking. Suddendly he was starting to hate this woman. Under the pretext of helping him, she was going to use him just to satisfy her curiosity about something that didn't matter to her at all.

What could she possibly hope to understand about it all. Shinji barely understood it, and he felt like he was right at he centre of it all, the pivot for all of the events that had happened in the last few months.

Everything had landed right in front of him, placed there in front of him by Misato and his father, by everyone at Nerv. Angel attacks, Asuka's selfish demands, Rei's mysterious past, the eva's deep rage, everything was an obstacle the world was clamouring him to hurdle, yelling at him to procede, and punishing him in equal measure for both success and failure.

And now this doctor, this person who should be trying to help him, was putting him yet another test, another situation that could lead to his father's or Misato's disappointment.

Oh, to hell with it.

He stood up, "You shouldn't ask questions that I can't answer."

And he walked out, ignoring her calls for him to come back.

* * *

"Okay Rei, that's enough for tody. Shut down the systems and we'll let you out."

"Understood," nodded Rei, and the video link cut out.

Maya leaned back in her seat and stretched her arms up high, closing her eyes and relishing the change in tension in her muscles, feeling the concentration in the command centre evapourate.

"Four hours straight," said Hyuga, collapsing forward onto his keyboard, "She's a machine."

Aoba hit some buttons, and relaxed as well, "Okay, the Magi are compiling the data. We'll have some useable results in about half an hour, so take a break while you can, guys." Aoba was in charge of the tests while Major Katsuragi and Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki were away.

The rest of te computer technicians grumbled something about going to get lunch and all filed out, leaving just the three bridge bunnies to their personal platform.

"You guys aren't going?"

Maya had shut her eyes, "In a minute. Just want to take a little break from moving for a bit."

Hyuga didn't even lift his head up from the keyboard, and merely waved his hand in a meaningless way at Aoba.

"Fair enough. Think I'll go get some coffee at least," he said standing up.

"Bring me one!"

"Me too!"

Aoba scowled at them both and left the command centre. Hyuga finally looked up whe he had gone out, and turned to Maya, "He's taking this being in charge stuff seriously, right?"

Maya gave a shrug without opening her eyes, "Who knows. We got the test done for the day, and that's all that matters."

"Well if he let the test go on for four hours, I'd say he was taking it seriously."

Maya looked around and saw Fuyutsuki walking towards them, "Sub-Commander-" she stated about to get to her feet.

"No don't get up," he said waving, them down, and taking Aoba's seat.

"How was the meeting with the JSDF?" asked Hyuga.

"Long, dull, and mostly signing papers. We'll have new armaments ready for conversion in a week though, thanks to the Commanders negotiating."

Maya grimaced, "More compatability programming?"

"Undoubtedly. But let's talk about more interesting things. How are the test results?"

Hyuga brought up some numbers on his screen, "The Magi are compiling the data now, but initial results are good. Nowhere near Shinji's level, but Rei should be able to pilot the eva without any problems."

"The synch ratio is a little higher than we expected," Maya added, "The eva seems to be a little more receptive to Rei these days."

Fuyutsuki stared off into space, "Perhaps she's getting used to it."

"Sir?"

He focused on Maya, "New neural paths. New connections made. These aren't mere robots we're dealing with, they can grow and adapt to things like any living organism."

He stood up, "Bring me the reports when you're done, and I'll hand them to the Commander myself. It's been a while since we did any real science together," he said, walking out of the command centre.

* * *

Rei let her plug suit fall into a puddle on the lcoker room floor, well moistned by the LCL that clung to her from the entry plug.

She wanted to sit, to lie down and to sleep, to let some of the exhaustion from her body drain out of her limbs. But she was covered in the translucent orange mess that connected her to the eva. Now it was out of the plugs purification system, drying into a crust onto her naked skin, it began to take on its bloody scent.

She left her suit in an untidy pile, and walked to the shower, leaving a trail of sticky foot prints on the tiles.

Usually she would be more careful in this room, since it was not her own, and was a place where she wanted to conceal her messy habits from others. But after four hours of total concentration, she hoped that other people would understand.

And the only other pilot who used this room was currently in America, starting the Commander's war.

Rei sighed, and turned the shower on, letting the steamy stream cascade down her porcelain skin, washing away the orange fluid. It gathered in a floating island around her feet before being carried off down the current to the waiting sink.

She would clean the floor later.

She stepped into the shower fully, drenching her already sodden hair in the warm water. She could feel the droplets penetrating deep into her blue strands. The LCL that had matted it into a stringy helmet was freed from her scalp, falling to the shower room floor like tangerine rain.

She closed her ruby red eyes and raised her face into the stream, luxuriating in the golden heat beating down onto her face. She could not tell how long she stayed like that, exhausted as she was from the synch test, and she could feel her eye lids growing heavier, even though they were already closed.

Without opening her eyes she searched with her hand, finding the hard shampoo bottle. She popped the lid and a wonderful fragrance filled the air, overpowering the lingering blood smell. Automatically she began cleaning herself properly, her delicate fingers working the lather throughout her fine blue hair.

Once done with the shampoo her hands roamed her body, accompanied by soap, searching out and gently teasing away whatever clumps of connection fluid still leingered on her fair skin.

She enjoyed her post-test showers, even more so now the other pilot was not here to ruin it by her constant stream of complaints or boasts. In some inexplicable way, removing all traces of LCL from her body felt nostalgic, and reminded her of being born.

With great reluctance, and after another few momments of bathing in the warm droplets, she turned off the shower, and left to towel herself off.

Refreshed from her experience, her mind wandered back to the synch test, and how easily the eva was responding to her. It was not like before, or like in Unit 00, which was more like a contest of wills.

Unit 01 now felt more like a reluctant collaboration. It was less like a competition for control, and more a sharing of a common goal, each and every movement, or simulated movement in this case, agreed upon, and with certain areas compromised between herself and the eva for greater fluidity of movment.

Rei took a small, yet functional towel from her locker, and dabbed away at the loose drops of water on her smooth skin. She examined her bare body in the full length mirror the locker room had.

She could feel scars all across her body. But she couldn't see any. Her skin was unblemished, ad pure, unmarked by even minor scratches.

But she could sense their presence. There was a particularly large one around her perfectly flat stomach, circular with tendrils spreading outwards around it. There were numerous other ones around her arms, legs, on her back. She even felt a faint whisper of finger marks around her neck.

But there was nothing there.

She sighed again. Strange, incomprehensible feelings.

She put on her uniform quickly, gathered up her plug suit into a bag, and set off to find a mop.

She needed to clear up after her own mess.

* * *

"... and so it's hardly surprising the patient is unable to perform his duties as he did before," the psychiatrist finshed her rather damning assesment of Shinji's mental health.

She looked at the boy's father, looking uncomfortable in the large armchir she used to talk to patients, while she sat behind her desk. He stared at her impassively from behind his tinted glasses, apparently listening to everything she said, and not even batting an eyelid when she outlined Shinji's feelings towards him.

She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her desk, "Mr. Ikari, can I be frank?"

Gendo nodded, "I would prefer it that way."

"Shinji is a fourteen year old boy. You cannot expect him to fight monsters for you. I'm impressed he's lasted as long as he has. I've seen people with less stress hang themselves with their own neck ties."

Gendo nodded, but gave no further response.

"He's just a little boy Mr. Ikari. Your son has been through so much, and he did it just to make you notice him. He's so obsessed with getting your approval he made himself do things so horrible, he can't even talk about them."

Gendo nodded silently again.

"He needs some semblance of a stable home life right now, or else.. well I don't know what he might do."

Gendo nodded, "And you're sure this mental damage is what is inhibiting his abiities with the eva?"

The doctor stared at him horrified, "He's your son! Aren't you at all concerned?"

Gendo's expression did not change, "Yes he's my son. Now is there anything else that I need to know about my pilot's state of mind?"

"My god... you simply don't care! You're using him just to play with your stupid robot!"

Gendo's expression still didn't change, but he moved imperceptibly closer to the doctor, "Yes. I used him. I had little choice in the matter. And you used him as well. You and every other person on this planet. You can claim as much ignorance as you like, but you knew our pilots were children."

He stood up.

"Yes, I used my own son to fight the Angels. Yes, that was my selfishness. And yes, I would do it again and again to make progress. But you, this city, this world, accepted that children were fighting. You accepted it, however blindly, to save yourselves. You could have said no, let the Angels destroy us, spare these children."

He walked towards the door, "But you didn't. I expect a full written report delivered to Nerv headquaters by the end of the week at the latest. You will recieve full compensation on reciept of the report."

The doctor recovered from her shock enough to shout a question at his back, "Mr. Ikari, why can't Shinji talk about Rei Ayanami?"

The look Gendo gave her before he went out of the door was far more threatening than anything he could have said. The psychiatrist collapsed into her chair, shaking like a child afraid of the dark.

* * *

Misato opened the door, and walked into the base's briefing room. She was wearing her least wrinkled Nerv uniform, and had taken a quick shower before coming out to the meeting with the new pilot.

Since this was her first time meeting him, and the British Army's representative she was going in full proffessional mode. That meant sparing make up, perfected after years in a military job to freshen up her face, and not be noticeable after what could be a days worth of running around after subordinates. It also meant her serious face, not her usual warm expressions.

She walked in, and saw the boy seated next to a stiff looking man in an immaculately starched and pressed dull green uniform, with near perfectly cut short hair. This man could have been a recruitment poster all on his own, right down to the determined expression of duty. She was slightly ashamed that her own efforts were going to suffer in the comparison, but hoped that her manner would make up for it.

She shot him a salute as he started to stand up, "Major Misato Katsuragi, representative for Nerv at this hand over," she said, in heavily accented but precise English.

The military man returned the salute, "Lietennant Thomas Atkinson, New Palace Guard. I'll be standing in for Brigadier-General Farringdon, who is officially ill, but in reality is opposed to this exchange."

Misato was taken back by the officers words. She rallied herself, "Should you tell me that?" she asked.

The officer nodded, "Both his Majesty and the General asked me to relay this to you. Both want you to have full information about where we all stand on this issue. Introduce yourself Art," he said, giving the boy a small nudge.

The boy gave Misato his own salute, "Sergeant Arthur Cooper, Royal Evangelion Guard," he said with the confidence of a fourteen year old who practised in front of a mirror.

Misato gave returned the salute, and noticed that he was actually wearing a uniform aswell, dull grey with black cuffs, although not nearly as well ironed as the officer next to him.

"Pleased to meet you, Arta."

Artur smiled, "Er, Arthur."

"Arfua?"

"Arthur."

"Arsa."

Arthur gave her an apologetic smile, "Close enough."

Misato returned his smile with an equally apologetic one, "Sorry, my English speaking isn't very good."

Lietennant Atkinson smiled, "On the contrary you speak very well. Art here just happens to have an awkward name. Have a seat," he said, gesturing to the chair opposite him, and sitting down himself.

"Thank you," replied Misato, sitting down. "So they made Arsa a sergeant? Why? The children in Nerv have no rank."

Atkinson smiled, "Internal politics and tradition I'm afraid. In the early stages of our Evangelion project Art was just a volunteer for the research division. Once the King took an interest though he was quickly brought into a newly formed Guard regiment directly under his Majesty's control. A security measure mostly, in case General Farringdon of the research division ever decided that his new machine could elevate his status."

"Are things like that in Britain now?" Misato asked horrified.

"No, but the King is cautious in the way he distributes power. Art here can tell you why he's a sergeant."

Arthur nodded, "It's because I'm technically in charge of a squad of people. When I pilot the eva I have to give commands about controls and power functions to a team of people back in command, and I can't do that if they're a higher rank than me."

Misato smiled, "I'm not sure thats going to work back at Nerv. Al the command centre personnell are officers."

Arthur grinned, "Same as back in the research facility. No one really takes it seriously. It's just a tradition the King dreamt up for my regiment... which basically consists of me and Toby."

"Toby?"

"The regimental mascot. He's a cat."

"That's... well..." Misato tried to find a way to be diplomatic, but was waved off by Atkinson.

"Don't worry about it. Traditions are meant to be silly, otherwise we wouldn't bother keeping them. By the way, where's Ms. Soryu?"

Misato welcomed the change of topic, "She's just on her way. We have just come off a long flight, and you know how we girls can be," she said winking at Arthur, who gave her a grin.

At that point, there was a knock on the door.

"Ah, speak of the devil," Atkinson said, rising, "Come in!"

Asuka waltzed into the room, wearing a yellow button down shirt and white jeans. Misato noticed that her hair was slightly more worked on than it had been in the past few weeks, and that she was once again wearing her red A-10 neural clips. She guessed that Asuka was in full proffessional mode as well.

Asuka looked around the room, "Sorry, I'm late," she said in almost flawless English, only slightly hinted with her German accent.

Atkinson smiled, "Quite all right. My name is Lieutennant Thomas Atkinson, and this is Sergeant Arthur Cooper."

Artur got up out of his seat and held out his hand, "Pleasure to meet you."

Asuka looked at his hand with a certain ammount of disdain, but shook it anyway, "Likewise. My name's Asuka Langley-Soryu." She looked a little closer at Arthur, and glanced at Misato, "He's not much to look at is he?" she said in Japanese.

"Oi," said Arthur, annoyed.

Asuka looked back at him with a raised eyebrow, "What?"

Misato started giggling behind her hand, "Asuka he can speak Japanese."

To Asuka's credit she only showed her shock for a nano-second, "So?"

Arthur cocked his head to the side, "Hey, I've just met you. Couldn't you be a little nicer?"

Asuka started to get annoyed as well, "Oh? And why should I be nice to you? What have you done to deserve that?"

"Well I haven't done anything to make you insult me. You should be more polite!"

"Wow, I can't believe I've been in the room for less than five minutes and the British guy is already lecturing me on being polite. Besides, its only a matter of time before your stupidity will annoy me."

"Stupidity?!"

Atkinson had sidled up to Misato during the confrontation, and chuckling to himself, said to Misato, "I think they like each other."

Misato still looking at the two of them, replied, "Yeah, they're getting along so well."

Atkinson looked at her, unsure from her heavily accented voice if she understood he was being sarcastic. In any case he cleared his throat, stalling the teeangaers verbal duel, "Sergeant Cooper, Ms. Soryu is undoubtedly tired and hungry from her journey. Why don't you escort her down to the mess for some refreshment?"

"What? I'm not-" Arthur started, before he caught the Lieutennant's expression. He gave him an imploring look, but Atkinson's expressin didn't change. His shoulders slumped in defeat, "Yes sir."

"Good lad."

Misato nodded, "That's not a bad idea Asuka. Go on down with Arsa, I'll catch up with you after we sort out some paper work."

Asuka looked as though she was about to protest, but it had been a long time since they had eaten. "Allright, if you insist, Misato. See you down there. Let's go 'Arsa'." And she strode out the door.

"After you, princess," Arthur muttered under his breath, following her out.

**To be continued...**

A/N: Chapter out! I'm treading a fine line between making Shinji too emo, and not staying true to what I think he would do and say given all the stuff that's happened to him. I think I've got the right balance, but I'm not sure.

Asuka's back to full fighting force, and we've introduced Arthur. If Lieutennant Atkinson looks too perfect right now, don't worry, that's because I wanted someone unmemorable to bring Arthur to the story. He'll disappear next chapter.

And that scene with Rei... totally unplanned. I'm not sure where the hell it came from, but I hope you enjoyed the fanservice, nevertheless.

Still extremely petty, and will accept any criticism, and will reply to any and all reviews.


	4. Chapter 4

_Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV. And the most British thing of all? Suspicion of anything foreign. _

_-Anon_

**Chapter 4 - The Deep Breath**

The American base's Colonel had finally deigned to meet with the Nerv task group and British delegation, grumbling under his breath about damned Japs and Redcoats taking over his base.

He was well within his rights to be annoyed. Gendo's negotiations and outright bribery of the President had given Nerv free reign over his facility, and he was largely out of control whilst his troops, and a good number of marines effectively went under foreign control. This kind of deal might seem far fetched, but Gendo was applying his full resources to his private war with Selee.

And Gendo was the man who went from a meaningless post-graduate position in a long forgotten university to Commander of the most deadly weapons devised by man. He was just that good.

But, the Colonel did not know that, nor did he care, as he watched with practiced eyes the female Nerv officer make a total shambles of a battle plan to attack a jet alone construction factory.

"After Asuka moves to the west side of the factory, we can start moving in the troops for the full invasion."

Lietennant Atkinson, Misato and the two eva pilots leaned over a map on one side of the briefing room table, with the Colonel and a few other american officers fuming on the other side.

The colonel could no longer contain himself, "Young lady, if that's your plan then you can use someone else's soldiers."

Misato frowned,"Your superiors-"

"Superiors be damned! I didn't liberate Canda from the Siberian Sepratists by blindly following orders, and I certainly didn't do it by throwing troops at a target and hoping things worked out!"

Lietennant Atkinson held out his hand to placate the colonel, "He's right Major. I don't have much experience with these kind of large scale engagements, but with our anti-piracy actions on the North African coast line we often had to target small scale factories producing war machines, much like this facility."

The colonel nodded, "And I heard the British had a knack for leaving the factories relatively untouched."

Atkinson smiled, "No point in taking something if you can't use it later. Simply hammering the facilities got results, but usually at a high cost. If we can draw out the defending troops from the factory it'll be easier to get good firing lines on them."

The colonel smiled back, "Yeah, don't want them holed up in that place anyway," he said, pointing to what looked like an empty field on the map, "Damn things nearly entirely underground, and we'll just lose men going in through well defended entry ways."

Misato looked back and forth between the two men. The truth was she had never had to deal with human opponents before, and was a little out of her depth. If the enemy was the size of a building or hurtling down from orbit she would know what to do, but here she was unsure of her own combat experience.

"How do we bring them out then?"

The colonel grinned at Atkinson, "Tunisian Tactic seems like a good plan here. It's a factory, not a base, so they're going to be more cash conscience."

"Tunisian Tactic?" Asuka asked.

"It's something the French military came up with during the Piracy wars in North Africa. You show the enemy a slowly approching, but completely overwhelming force, and leave an obvious outlet for escape. Since the targets were pirates they nearly always decided to cut their losses and run," Arthur told her. The entire room turned to stare at him. He blushed, "They made me study some basic tactics before I came out here," he said aplogetically.

The colonel raised an eyebrow, "Well study harder kid, that's only half right. You need to demonstrate overwhelming firepower as well. We'll set up a marching line along this valley," he said, running a finger across the map, "And pop open the factory roof with an airstrike. That'll shake them up a bit, and if we do it right we can limit the damage to the factory."

Atkinson nodded, "Have some scouts recon the valley first. It's conceivable they placed defences and traps there."

The colonel grinned, "That'll take too much time, and we don't need to son. We got the best mine sweeper in the world to take point."

"What's that?" asked Asuka.

"Well one of your robots. All you have to do is put on your shield and walk forward. We have the troops follow in behind with some tanks and we can make military history by having the first advance with no casulaties."

Misato nodded, following the logic of it all, "That sounds good."

Atkinson nodded, "As unlikely as zero casualties sounds, it does have merit. What about the snap ambush for the escape channel?"

Arthur looked at him, "Snap ambush?"

Atkinson smiled at him, "You really should study harder Art. The ambush of the escape channel is what makes this an effective anti-piracy tactic. No sense in letting criminals go free to carry on somewhere else."

Misato smiled, "We can use the other eva for that. If we hide it behind this hill, we can surprise the retreating forces and not risk any more troops than we have to."

"I'll do that," Asuka volunteered.

"You sure?"

"Why not? Sounds more fun than walking slowly towards the enemy."

Atkinson shook his head, "That won't work."

Asuka glared at him, "You don't think I can do it?"

"Well I'm sure you can, once you get there. But there's two problems with that plan. First of all, there isn't enough cover to let the eva get to that position undetected. And second of all, Art here can't take point on the advance."

Arthur nodded, "I can't use the AT field yet."

Asuka was shocked, "Well why not?"

"Well you explain to me how it works!" Arthur shot back.

"Quiet Art. Asuka will have to move up with the main force. Art can take the ambush on his own, and meet up with the support crew there."

Misato frowned, "How can he get there undetected when Asuka can't?"

Atkinson smiled, "Oh he can't. We'll do something a little more dynamic..."

* * *

Deep in the heart of the Japanese countryside, a teacher grumbled his way through marking homework. He lived in a fairly picturesque and traditional, if a little small, Japanese house, surrounded on all sides by a roughly kept garden, small beds of flowers sprouting apparently at random.

The house stood on the side of a mountain, looking down into the valley of farmers and villagers who sent their sons and daughters to his school. Transport in the countryside was good enough now that students would travel from many valleys in each direction to come to the high school here, and the sparsity of the rural population made that a neccesity. Because of that, people tended to refer to this place as High School Valley, and the name had stuck with the locals, who laughingly referred to themselves as 'High Schoolers'.

Time and time again he had told them the correct way to answer these relatively simple questions, and every year he thought he had finally cracked the quickest way to teach.

But every year the same mistakes popped up.

He sighed, putting the students mark on top of the paper, "You have disappointed me today Goro," he said to the empty room, "Prepare yourself for extra class work!"

He was an elderly man, perhaps only a few more years off retirement. But his eyes and his movements showed a surprising ammount of youth, the product of spending your entire life doing work that you love.

An old woman poked her head into the room, the same aura of youth surrounding her as it did him, "Are they troubling you again this year, dear?"

"The same as every year. It's as if they simply don't want to study classical music!"

"They can't all be like Shinji, dear!" she said, going back to whatever household chore was demanding her attention.

"No, I guess they can't," he muttered under his breath, taking another piece of homework fom the pile in front of him, "Oh no! Another old Korean pop song!"

The phone rang, and he thankfully took the oppurtunity to put off reading about another band whose claim to fame was pretty girls. He picked up the phone, "Yamamoto residence... hello? Hello?"

The phone was silent for sometime before a weak voice came through, "... Teacher?"

Recognition clicked at once, "Shinji?! Shinji! Yumi, come quick, and pick up the phone it's Shinji!"

He heard his wife drop something heavy and scamper to the house's second phone,"How are you, my boy? We've been watching all about you on the TV! Well done in fighting off those aliens!"

"... Um... thanks."

His wife cut in, "But you're so cruel Shinji. You lived with us for so long and this is the first time you've called since you left!"

"Er, sorry."

"Oh, leave him alone Yumi, he's been busy! And I don't doubt the girls have been causing him trouble as well, Mr. Saviour-Pilot!"

"You could say that, Teacher."

Yumi spoke again, "Oh that would be terrible, the girls in the village would be crushed!"

Something approaching nervous laughter came down the phone, "Aunt Yumi! Don't make up stuff like that."

"Who's making things up?" Yumi giggled in that peculiarly girlish way older women can.

"Well, you're done fighting now aren't you? Why don't you come for a visit?" the old music teacher asked, "My summer beds are just about to bloom, and the seeds you planted a year ago have grown up so strong!"

"Yes, and all your friends would be happy to see you as well. They say you haven't contacted them since you left as well! That really is too cruel Shinji," Yumi said.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, just come and visit! Your room is exactly as you left it, minus a few embarrasing articles I found whilst cleaning," Yumi said.

There was a strangled sound of embarrasment from the other end of the line.

"Yes I'm afraid I stole your treasures for my own curiosity Shinji. I never knew you were into that kind of thing!" grinned the teacher.

"Um... well... you see..."

"I always thought you were too gentle for punk rock! But you have so many cassettes..."

"Ah! Those are Kazu's!"

"Ah, I see... well when will you be coming to visit?"

"Soon... I think."

"Good, good."

"I.. I might be staying a while..."

His teacher caught the tone of his voice, and turned a little more serious, "Well you're welcome to stay as long as you like. You're family after all."

"... Thank you, Teacher. Bye."

"Good bye Shinji!" cut in Yumi, still very bright.

"Yes, good bye Shinji."

The boy hung up, and Yumi ran to talk to her husband, "He didn't sound very happy, dear."

"No," the teacher said, shaking his head, "Not happy at all. I wonder what's been going on in that city."

* * *

The eva's arrived at the base, and through some miracle of logistics, roughly within an hour of each other. It was an impressive feat, almost entirely carried out by the German branch of Nerv still loyal to Gendo. Asuka's scarlet giant arrived bourne on the back of a collosal truck from the coastline, whereas the British Eva was airlifted in, it's dull camoflage green a stark contrast to the brilliance of the Nerv grown titan.

"It looks really boring," Asuka commented, peering at the almost logic defying unloading of the giant from the still moving air craft through a set of borrowed binoculars.

Helicopters surrounded it, attaching cables to joints, swarming it as the huge transport plane circled folornly around the base, a small fuel jet continually flying up and down to keep the beast in the sky. A swarm of tiny bees in a cloud under a giant eagle holding a doll.

"You think so? I like it!" said Arthur, staring at the equally prepostorous, and inelegant unloading of Asuka's eva through his own binoculars. "Have to admit though, yours looks really good with that paint job."

Cranes surrounded the mammoth lorry, and workmen scurried up and down the eva like ants attacking a giant. Great loops and cables hung loosely around the eva as they prepared to drag it upright into the waiting restraints, to be taken down into the bases underground hangar. The hangar itself was originally made when the Americans had planned to buy a fleet of Jet Alones, and had been hastily converted to accomadate the evas.

"Why is it that colour anyway? Do they really think it's going to be able to hide in tall grass or something?"

They were standing on the roof of the main building on the base. Planning had gotten to the stage where they officially, 'No longer needed to know,' and had effectively been kicked out of the briefing room. According to the colonel, children should not be present at such meetings.

Arthur laughed, "Nah, I don't think they expect me to do that. It's basically the cost of the paint," he said, letting the bonouculars drop to hang on the strap around his neck.

"Huh?" Asuka asked, still holding up her binoculars, but mommentarily glancing away from the bizzare scene in front of them to give him a questioning look.

"Well think about it. How much does it cost to paint something that huge? The only paints made in large enough quantities to be cheap enough are camo green and battleship grey. And since we were trying to keep it a secret, it would be suspicious for the army to put in an order for that much ship paint. So there you go."

Asuka cocked her head to the side, "How come you know so much about it?"

Arthur leaned on the railing around the roof, "It's basically been my life for the past year. Everyday, after school I'd get picked up by an unmarked car a mile out of town, and they'd take me to the research lab for tests and generally just moving the eva around."

"Hmm... never really thought about just moving it. At Nerv we have a lot of cranes and stuff to move them around inside the base."

"Yeah, our lab was basically an underground hangar with a bank of computers at one end."

"Hmm," murmured Asuka, and went back to looking at the eva.

"I even had to work on weekends."

Asuka made no response. She was starting to think that, well minus repeated Angel attacks and mind violations, the Tokyo-3 pilots had it relatively good.

"It's got a weird set of eyes."

Art glanced over at Asuka, "Says the girl who's eva has four eyes."

"Yeah but at least they're symmetrical. It looks like yours has a third eye on it's left jaw or something."

"Well, it actually has five eyes. Four little ones, and one big one in the middle. But the big one, and one of the little ones are completely blind, so they're covered up with armour. The eye on the right actually only has partial sight too. Genetic defects apparently."

"So... it has two and a half eyes?"

"Pretty much."

"Your eva is weird."

"Thanks."

The sun started to set, and floodlights were brought in to light the final unloading procedures. Her own eva was gently rising up into place, and the British eva was slowly being lowered. Again, by the miracle of German led logistics, the evas would both be ready at roughly the same time. The giant plane had already flown off to another air base with a runway big enough for it to land.

"Hey, Soryu... can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead 'Arrrsa'," Asuka mimicked Misato's mispronunciation of his name.

"Okay, two things now. One can you please not call me that. And two, how do you make the AT field work?"

Asuka dropped the binoculars and spun arond to sit on the railing. "Well, the answer to your first question, I'll call you Arthur if you stop calling me Soryu. Kind of had enough of that surname stuff in Japan."

"'kay, so Asuka, how do you make the AT field work?"

"Well, Arthur, I can't really tell you!" Asuka replied flipantly, swinging her legs whilst she sat on the railing.

Arthur hung his head in an overly dramatic expression of exasperation, "Thanks, you're a big help."

"Anytime. But seriously, I don't know. It's just something you kind of do. Even Shinji and Wonder Girl can do it, so it can't be that hard."

"It's hard for me to even think about it though."

"I don't know, maybe you're just dumb."

Art glared at her in mock anger, "You're a great person to talk to, you know?"

"And you're as charming as I expected an English person to be," Asuka shot back sarcastically.

Art only responded with a snort, and watched as the last cables were detached from his and her eva. The sun was hanging low casting a fiery orange glow across the plains, the two eva's like identical shilouetes against it.

"Hey Arthur... can you really do that thing tomorrow?"

"Well, I've done a bunch of simulations. Never tried it in real life though."

"Heh, look forward to it, it's a whole heap of fun."

"Hmm?" said Arthur, increasingly aware that his hand was trying to shake.

"Just remember to bend your knees."

* * *

"Nerv are preparing to attack my factory," stated Selee Two, matter of factly.

The obelisks, if they had eyes, would be looking apprehensively at each other.

"How did they find it?" one of them asked.

"I'm not sure. But I believe Ikari has more than one intelligence organisation working on us. We should look to our own contacts and make sure they're still secure," suggested Selee Seven, who had ben suggesting a great many things lately.

"Yes, but this doesn't help my factory," Selee Two said impatiently.

There was a few momments silence whilst each council member tried to think why they should care.

"A large ammount of funds has gone into the construction of the facility," Selee Two reminded them.

There was a chorus of affirmations and grunts of solidarity. From behind his audio only monolith, Kheel shook his partly robotic head. Despite Selee Two's all consuming passion for money, he rather liked him. Perhaps it was even because of his singular obsession. Men who devote theselves to a cause or ideal ofen admire others who are similarly devoted, no matter what the cause or ideal.

"We knew Ikari would be striking soon. I expected something more subtle, but perhaps he wants to demonstrate his growing power to us. What plans do you have for defence?" he asked, and and all the council members knew to who the question was directed.

"Well, I know the American colonel very well. He's a man who admires small scale tactics, and loves to apply them to larger engagements. He rarely takes losses through bad planning. And he's an arrogant egotist. He will dominate the planning sessions," replied Selee 10.

"You know him well," comented Selee Seven.

"Our world is far smaller these days, and we both work in the same field," the old veteran explained.

"What will his plan of attack be?" asked Selee Two.

"Since the British are there, he'll use the Tunisian Tactic. The French dreamt it up, but the British used it near exclusively in North Africa. He won't pass up the oppurtunity to show off his skill by doing their tactic better than they could. He'll plan to scare you out of the factory with a massive show of force."

A map of the factory appeared in the centre of the room, and a bright red line appeared in the valley in front of the factory.

"They'll approach the factory through this valley, and use the eva to brush aside the defences allready in place. At the back," he said, a green dot materialising behind the factory on the map, "They will use the Brtish Eva to act as an ambush for retreating forces here. I'm not certain how they'll deploy it yet, but since it has no useable AT field, they'll place it in the easier offensive role."

"So what can I counter with? The first batch of Jet Alones are not yet finished, and my security detail is hardly up to the task of defending against an army," Selee Two said, with an amazing calmness given his imminent destruction.

If obelisks could smile, Selee Ten's would be giving the council the most devious and satisfied grin ever seen on a black box.

"We'll ambush them back. Ikari isn't the only one with connections."

* * *

Rei Ayanami slept.

Exhaustion from the test had made it so easy for her to sleep it was ridiculous. She barely had time to even remove her clothes before she collapsed onto her bed. Outside the hammers of the factory, once again alive with workers, clanged their industrial lullaby.

And for the second time in her life, she dreamt.

The sky was black, and she stood next to an orange ocean, the lands around her strangley red, and barren. She coud feel the lack of life around her. There weren't even any plants.

The sheer scilence of the world now was immense.

No sounds. Just a slight breeze, and the dull lapping of the white crested mandarin waves against the pale sand of the beach. It could almost be mistaken for peaceful, if not for the total absence of life.

She smelled something familiar, bourne upon the coastal breeze, sightly saltier than a sea breeze, yet hauntingly sweet.

And then she saw herself, standing knee deep in th surf.

Hand outstretched.

Welcoming her back.

She took a step towards herself, and fell through the pure white sand, the images and the beach rushing past her.

And then she saw the man again.

Brilliantly blue against the black background of her nightmare, he was facing her now. The hole in his chest was smaller, and she was much closer to him now.

The beam of light slowly dragged her towards him.

She knew how to end this dream.

She took one step off the beam, and plunged into the unknown.

She suddendly felt a great wave of sadness flow out from the man, tinged with shock and betrayal.

As she was opening her eyes she saw it bend down to catch her.

It was the dead of night, and everything was dark. Even the hammers had gone quiet. Rei shivered on her bed.

The loneliness of the beach equally matched the sadness rolling out from the man.

Alone, in her room, she shivered.

* * *

Two days later, and the operation was progressing steadily.

Misato stood with the American colonel in the forward Command post. Atkinson had given his apologies, but was called away to some urgent business back in Britain, leaving Arthur in her care, with all the necessary paper work.

His and the boy's parting had been a stiffly formal affair, each giving each other a salute, some minor pleasantries, and a comment about the weather. Then they had saluted again, spun on the heels and walked in opposite directions, Arthur going to his eva for the mission, and Atkinson to a waiting helicopter for his.

Misato hoped she was never that cold with Shinji or Asuka.

Preparations had gone off without a hitch, and Asuka was now walking slowly in front of a vast coloumn of tanks and foot troops, working their way up the valley. They had met no resistance so far, aside from a few mines caught by Asuka's AT field, extended a little way in front of her, digging up trees and brushing aside boulders. The eva had it's arms extended in front of it, as though Asuka was concentrating on maintaining it, the eva's rifle slung behind it's back.

Asuka had also insisted on carrying the large battleaxe, for reasons only known to her self, but it was not interfereing with the mission in anyway, so Misato had largely forgotten about it.

Arthur was on route, and the British Eva would be in position just as the airstrike landed.

Misato was uneasy though. Nothng ever went this well for Nerv.

* * *

Arthur awoke in his entry plug. His eyes snapped open, and he took a deep breath in, but gagged on the LCL that had caught in his throat. Coughing up the foul liquid he promised himself he would never fall asleep in the plug again. It felt like someone had poured coppery bile into the back of his throat and solidified it with used chewing gum. Sufficed to say, it was not a pleasant feeling.

He had only taken a short nap whilst the rest of the operation went on without his inclusion. He was regretting that now.

He looked around for what had woken him, scanning the interior of his entry plug. He could find nothing out of the ordinary, but his eyes came to rest on a small disc of brass. It was connected to the pilots couch by a chain, which was in turn hooked up to a handy non-essential loop. He leaned down to grab the brass disk, a small grin on his face. It was his cap badge, removed from his formal beret. He gripped it in his hand, just remembering all those stupid stories his instructors had told him to make him remember his drills. He kept the badge with him now as a reminder as to what he had to do.

And that would be to pull the trigger.

Well, now it was crunch time, and he would find out if he could do it. He was not sure he could. After all, they had not done anything to him, except sign on that dotted line at the bottom of the recruitment form. And just because they had filled in the wrong side's form was no reason to ki- shoot at them, shoot at them, not necessarily kill right?

He remembered watching them fill the magazine for the standard eva assault rifle. The rounds were about the same size as cars. Like hell they would only injure someone. Anyone on the receiving end of that bullet would only have one probable, no, definite fate. And that would be to become a red smear on the landscape.

Most of them would just be workers too, just regular people who needed a job. The security detail would only be a small, but vocal fraction of the people he would ki- shoot at.

Well, it was too late to back out now. He just had to remember that when he pulled that trigger that he was pulling it not for himself, or for some anonymous shadow government agency, but for those poor bastards on the end of whatever else these people might do to them. All for them. Yeah...

He looked at the cap badge in his hands. Even to him those words sounded hollow and meaningless.

" 'Standing on the shoulder's of giants' ...," he read out loud. He shook his head. He wondered how his instructors had done it when they were called to ki- shoot at some one. At least they knew it would be fair, but the people he would be forced to ki- shoot at would have no chance against the eva. Yes, he had no AT field to protect himself, and a concerted artillery strike would quickly put him out of action... but the people he would be fighting were simply running away from a factory, and he was in a huge robot.

And he would kill them.

There, he had said it.

He looked up from his thoughts to see a little flashing red light on his radio panel. That indicated he was five minutes from the target. He made a few final checks of his entry plug, and slipped the badge's chain around the handy loop on the edge of the pilots couch.

He was the snap ambush. He would do deep intot he enemy territory behind the base. He would have five minutes in which to secure the area before his battery power ran out, and if the power did run out and the area was still hostile, the trucks dragging the power cable would not enter the area. He would be left alone and downed, behind enemy lines. There was no doubt that if that happened he would be captured and killed, so that Nerv would have one less evangelion for a while.

Arthur was very, well, scared of this. Standard equipment for his entry plug included a small firearm, a diddy pistol to most people, but he doubted he could do much with it. It would probably only end up pissing them off when they found him, and he would most likely manage to shoot himself in the foot. But it was a little bit of protection, just a small hope in case the worst did happen.

And he hoped the worst would not happen.

His hand was shaking again.

* * *

Asuka's hand flinched as her AT field detonated yet another mine in the assaulting armies path.

The first few times all the soldeirs around her had cheered with each explosion, but as they drew closer to the base, they had gone more silent. These men were proffessionals, veterans from a dozen wars in as many years.

The Americans had been hit harder by the aftermath of Second Impact, rather than the cataclysm itself. Desperate countries had looked jealously at it's immense natural resources, and had mounted attacks to take pices of it for themselves. The Americans had defended valiantly, beating off each and every attack with greater and greater efficiency.

The result was an army almost unsurpassed in real combat experience. They had a deserved reputation for combat excellence, and were about to demonstrate that discipline and expertise today. Some of their squads had Nerv officers attached, who would be directing things once they got into the factory, but they would undoubtedly be ignored.

Asuka concentrated on keeping her field spread.

"Damn it," she grumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I'm actually sweeping the valley floor."

The batle axe felt heavy on her back, and was only just counter balanced by the now slung rifle. She wanted it mainly for the shock factor. Hopefully soldiers seeing a great red demon swinging an axe around would simply flee in the face of such a nightmare. And that would solve some rather annoying questions that were bouncing around her head.

She was almost glad that her concentration on the AT field forced her to put away her rifle. If she could shoot and maintain at the same time she would have little reason not to use the eva's heavy artillery to clear away entire platoons with a single burst. She was certain she could do it, but she really didn't want to kill that many people, who had absolutely no chance of fighting back.

She sighed, noticing her field control dropping a bit as the guilt train chugged across her conscience again. She pushed it from her mind, and went back to focusing on that elusive thought that kept her AT field going. She could feel it, but not understand it, and if she focused on it too hard it would slip away, like a marble covered in soap through her fingers.

She sighed again. Despite the impending action, and moral dilemmas to come, right now seemed to be stretching into infinite monotomy. She was bored.

"Okay Asuka, you should be seeing the air strike come in now," came Misato's voice over the radio.

Asuka looked into the distance and saw a forest of white streaks descend onto a part of the valley, which looked like a giant strangely square field.

A huge black plane suddendly shot overhead, and as it receded into the distance over the valley, Asuka could see little green legs sticking out behind it.

Arthur was on his way then.

* * *

The little flashing red light on his heads up display, stopped flashing. That meant he was twenty seconds from the target. He thumbed on all the eva controls, and the entry plug came to life around him. It flashed through a series of psychedelic patterns, making Arthur wonder what exactly they had put in his LCL mix, before the external view came up. Nothing much, just the dark grey of the carrier craft he was in.

He glanced down at the little cap badge, which hung from that handy loop.

His hands were now freely shaking, through both fear and adrenaline. He tried to relax, but was completely unable to. He really did not want to be here, and his back brain was constantly asking why he was doing this. He had no answer. But right now was not the place to turn back. People were counting on him, and he had to perform his duty.

And yet his hands wouldn't stop shaking.

The red light on his console went green.

He pulled a small lever at the base of his chair, and he felt the eva shudder from its moorings on the carrier craft. The green eva slid out the back of the craft, hanging in mid-air, trailing after the carrier craft.

As gravity took a hold, his stomach lurched as the green eva accelerated to the ground.

He grinned, a humourless expression of determination.

"Here goes..."

To be continued...

A/N: Chapter out. I kind of suck at building tension, but I wanted to try and show good reasons for what was about to happen, rather than just go 'Stompy mecha fight! Yaay!!'.

Selee are probably getting a bit too comical, but when I remember what they looked like in the series before they started using the voice only obelisks, they looked more silly to me than threatening. And all that chanting stuff in EoE really makes them seem like a big boys club rather than a clandestine council of powerful serious men. I'll do my best to redeem them though... they still deserve respect for what they accomplished.

I'm also aware that the story is rapidly diverging into a number of different threads, but I'll try to tie them all together again at the end. The end of the series did a good job of seperating the cast, and even EoE didn't group them all together again. Well, untill that orange goo business mashed their brains together like a giant mental omlette, but that's cheating.

Ok, I'm not really doing this for the reviews, but I am very petty, and would like a little acknowledgement. Really, one review will keep me happy all week. Two might keep me going the entire month!


	5. Chapter 5

_I think today's lesson is, not to do too many things at once._

_- Anonymous bridge bunny._

**Chapter 5 - Storm**

A single piece of paper dropped onto Gendo's desk, causing the Nerv Commander to look up from the vital paperwork that had been building up during his busy preparations. He saw Shinji, his son, with a cold indifferent look in his eyes, that he knew was learnt at a young age from watching his father.

He glanced at the paper. "What is this?" he asked, holding it up.

Shinji took a few steps back from the desk, maintaining his apathetic gaze, "It is my resignation."

Gendo's already darkened office seemed to descend even more into shadow, the small pool of light around his desk cutting off the rest of the world from view. In the centre, the father, holding the sheet of crisp paper, and towards the edge, the son, hands held loosely at his sides. Both seemingly relaxed, both with the same unapologetic gaze.

Gendo spoke first.

"Why?" he asked, his tone professional and unforced.

Shinji's fingers twitched lightly before he answered.

"I am of no further use to you or Nerv. I cannot pilot the eva. I will not waste your, or the organisations time any further," his voice professional, but forced. He was still only a child, confronting his father.

"If you do not wish to waste my time then do not interrupt my work with these childish displays," he said, casting the paper aside, "Resignation denied."

And he carried on working, ignoring his son in the hopes that this would be the end of their interaction.

Shinji stood, hands twitching visibly at his sides, his stare hardening into a glare. He dropped his eyes to the floor, his anger and frustration rising.

"But I cannot pilot the eva," he said, struggling to keep his voice from breaking it's professional air.

Gendo did not look up from his papers, "A temporary set back, and one you will overcome."

"Why must I overcome it?" Shinji nearly growled.

"Because there is no one else more suitable to pilot than you," Gendo said, stamping a paper with a little more force than he needed to with an approval mark.

"There is another pilot now."

"Untested, and most likely ineffective."

"Rei can pilot Unit 01."

"At a reduced synchronisation ratio, and control."

"But I cannot control it at all!" Shinji finally broke, his voice becoming louder.

Gendo stopped his work, and lowered his pen to the desk with an impossibly loud click. He assumed his usual posture, his hands in front of his face, eyes glowering over his knuckles. "You will not raise your voice to your superiors Pilot Ikari," he menaced, emotion edging into his voice.

"I don't care! If you don't like it fire me!" Shinji half-yelled, still trying to keep a small reign on his rising bile.

"I refuse," Gendo returned, anger slowly creeping into his replies.

"Why not?!"

"You are needed."

"Who needs a broken pilot?! Why do you want to keep me here?!"

"Because-" Gendo stopped himself, hesitating for a fraction of a second, "Because I need a pilot."

Shinji clenched his fist, and glared at Gendo.

"I won't be used to fight your battles anymore!"

* * *

"Colonel! We have multiple contacts along the valley rim!"

"What?! What happened to the scouts we posted?!" barked the Colonel in the command centre.

"We've lost contact sir! All the outlying skirmish units are MIA!" yelled a nervous corporal.

"What's going on?!" Misato demanded as the forward command post suddenly erupted with frenzied activity and yelled reports, low ranking officers and technical staff running across the room like startled ants.

The colonel was too experienced to let this kind of thing rattle him, and gave her a very serious look, "Intel was wrong. Looks like the factory had a bigger defence force than we thought."

Misato's expression went from confused to determined in a heart beat, "How bad?"

A sergeant gave the Colonel a scrap of paper with the latest intelligence on it. He glanced at it, his face turning darker and more grim. He looked at her with hard eyes.

"Pretty damn bad."

Asuka saw movement on the hilltops around her.

She glanced around wildly, seeing tanks and artillery set up on the hill tops around the advancing column of troops.

She could almost feel the murderous intent of those machines.

Terror gripped her, as she realised her allies on the ground below were sitting ducks, and that with her field stretched out in front of her, her back was also one giant red target.

She saw the flashes from the guns, and had only split seconds to react to the new threat.

* * *

The green eva thudded heavily on to the ground, sending up a small dust cloud around its feet. The force of the impact sent Arthur slamming into his harness as he was thrown forward, knocking the wind from him. After being hurled forward, his body was hurled back as the eva recovered, smacking his head on the headrest of the seat. The seat had been converted from an old ejector seat from a high altitude interceptor, and it creaked on its hinges.

Arthur looked around him, slightly dazed and winded. Regaining his senses, he remembered procedure, and keyed on his comms, "This is Cooper, I'm down and relatively okay."

A familiar voice crackled across the open channel, "Arsa! Be careful! The enemy have larger numbers than expected! You have to clear the area before the power trucks can get to you!"

Arthur felt his chest tighten, "Understood," he said, weakly. He checked his battery timer. Just four minutes left. Oh dear.

The green eva rose from it's crouch. Arthur hit a couple of buttons on his armrest console, and an overlay appeared on the view screens in front of him. As he looked, he could see Asuka's evangelion highlighted in a gold wire frame, even though they were obscured by scenery. Enemy columns were shown up on a red wire frame. He looked for a green box, which would be the weapons locker dropped somewhere nearby.

(3mins50secs)

The green wire frame box was overlaid on a couple of trees. 'The weapons drop box must be on the other side of them then.' He gripped the two joysticks that jutted out from the front of the seat, and guided the eva in the direction of the green box. When he was lined up with the box, he looked to both sides and rammed both sticks forward, sending the eva hurtling toward the tree line. He barrelled straight through the trees.

As he cleared the tree line, trunks and branches showering around him, Arthur caught sight of a column of what looked like tanks charging towards him. He looked at them with dread as he realised there would be people in those armoured killing machines.

He skidded to a halt next to the drop box, and ripped open the top. As he reached inside for the weapons, he noticed what appeared to be hinges on the inside of the side of the box. He looked around to see the box opening was in fact on the side. "Um... hope they don't need it again..." he gave a nervous laugh, trying to break the tension across is mind.

He grabbed the rifle out of the box, and flicked a few switches. This set off the auto-controls to position the rifle in the correct place, ready for him to shoot. The auto-controls were one of the many systems in the eva, which made it possible for it to be used as a war machine. For low synch. level pilots, such as Art, the auto-controls performed complex operations, such as putting a finger through a trigger guard. This system saved a lot of time, stopping the pilot from spending hours getting their eva's fingers into small holes, something learnt from the Dover engagement, when Arthur literally couldn't reload his weapon.

It also saved on rifles when they missed the hole. An eva is designed to rip through concrete blocks without noticing, and so the rifles were like Swiss cheese until the system was in place.

When the rifle was secure in a firing position, and sent the eva sprinting through the tree line towards the little valley opening that he would be ambushing from.

The eva burst through the tree line, sending tree trunks flying like matchsticks. He readied his rifle, aiming for the lead tank of the column. A second rain of missiles fell onto the factory roof, sending little flowers of fire into the sky. Arthur did not notice them hit, as he pulled the trigger, sending a volley of tracer rounds hurtling towards the tank column.

The column disappeared in a shower of earth and fire as the rounds exploded on impact. Arthur did not have the luxury of time he thought he would have to reflect on the fact he had just killed a few dozen people.

In fact, it was surprisingly easy.

Then the dust cloud cleared, revealing the burnt out husks of the few remaining tanks, those that had not been buried under the dirt as it fell back to earth from being sent skyward. He was half glad that the resolution on his viewer was not good enough to make out individual bodies.

(3mins20)

He scanned the valley.

The hilltops beyond the line of trees were clear, apart from a few enemy self-propelled mortars, which had begun pounding away at the allied troop formations. Arthur did not bother with them. His main concerns were in the valley, and he would have to leave the other targets to Asuka and the Americans. And he had new problems to worry about.

For one thing, there was a fresh column of tanks hurtling from the factory gates, huge concrete holes in the ground that just seem to spew armoured death from its mouth. For another there was a line of artillery, all of which seemed to be indicating in a subtle way that when they started firing, no one was going to be happy.

As a side thought his mind noted a series of infantry squads, stealthily working their way closer to the eva. But, they were only infantry. The eva barely had to worry about the artillery, let alone a few men with small arms. This was a far cry from the helpless factory workers he was expecting, and he was almost grateful for that.

(3mins10)

On the other hand, the trucks carrying his power supply *would* care about a few infantrymen, no matter how small their limbs were. So this left Arthur the tough choice of turning them into geography. But it hardly seemed fai-

His thoughts were interrupted by a whistling noise. Lots of whistling noises. He saw the white trails loop lazily in the sky behind the missiles sent at his eva. Without even thinking, he sent his eva leaping to one side, and he watched the massive fireworks display as the missiles collided with the forest behind him. Would have been quite pretty had it not been for the fact they were aimed at him.

He snapped his head around to see the artillery lines, the smoke trails from the missiles clearly pointing to who had just let loose several thousands of dollars worth of bonfire night specials. He set the viewer on maximum resolution, and could see a few bodies quickly exiting the artillery vehicles, as though they knew the pilot of the eva would not be very pleased with them.

And he was not very pleased. The artillery line disappeared in a hail of explosive rounds. Well, at least half. The barrage had shaken up Arthur more than he thought, and his aim had been wildly off.

(2mins55)

The new tank column that had been racing from the factory was now moving at a more surreptitious rate. Nobody particularly wanted to be on the receiving end of the indestructible giants weapon of mass destruction. But, they were still a threat to his power cable carrying trucks. They could not be allowed to come any closer, especially if they were moving in his direction.

The artillery fired again, although Arthur was too interested in the tanks to notice. He was also too busy to spot the firestorm that had appeared surrounding the advancing American troops. If Arthur had a failing, and currently he was finding out that he had more than just a few, it would be the fact he tended to keep too close an eye on his objectives.

To that end he dispassionately destroyed the armoured column. This took quite some doing. The last column had been tightly bundled together, as though huddling close to each other would provide protection from the nasty evas gun. All it had done was to leave Art with a bigger target, and allow him to use fewer rounds when taking them out. These buggers were all neatly spread out, and so a lot of the rounds were wasted on the gaps between tanks.

(2mins35)

It was after he had destroyed the tanks his eyes got around to telling his brain about the artillery firing. Which became a moot point as explosion blossomed on the evas chest and head armour. The blasts blacked out the forward vision, replacing the viewer with static as the explosion played merry hell with the nerve connections. The concussive force of the multiple impacts sent the eva sliding back a few metres. Out of reflex, Arthur held one arm over his eyes, trying to shield himself from the missiles.

When the barrage stopped, he saw that the eva was holding its arm in the same position. The rifle though, not having the luxury of thick armour to protect it, was covered in gouges and smoke. He cursed the fact he couldn't use the AT field. It would have made his job so much safer.

He was not happy. The scorch marks ruined the nice paint job done on the rifle, but fortunately it remained usable.

(2mins05)

The eva once again gripped, the rifle in both hands. Arthur dropped it to its knees in classic marksman pose, and set the rifle square in his shoulder. This was a fairly pointless exercise. The only reason people do it was to keep the rifle steady with the recoil, but an eva was both strong enough and big enough to take the recoil of even this massive gun without flinching. But at least it made him feel better. In the end that's all that really counts when piloting the bio-titan.

He picked his targets carefully. He used the viewer on maximum scope to effectively snipe the artillery units whilst they desperately reloaded the big guns. But it was futile. The entire line of vehicles was destroyed, one shot per customer.

He was surprised by a sudden constant thudding on the ground around him. He looked to his, um, the eva's side, and saw what appeared to be a group of survivors of the tank column he had destroyed. They had sneaked up on him whilst he was dealing with the artillery.

(1min35)

The green goliath turned and blasted the few tanks, the boy pilot's eyes seemingly distant as he extinguished this threat to his mission. They exploded spectacularly. Arthur thought that the explosions looked quite good when they got this close.

Now he had time to deal with the remaining squads of infantry. They were quite close now though. He was shocked at how close they had gotten in such a short time. Why, it could only be a few seconds since he first saw them. Then he checked the battery charge remaining counter. Ohshit.

He got a good look at them. Most were carrying RPG's, the one shot disposable ones that many a common squaddie got lumbered with if the top brass thought there would be something heavy on wheels in the area. A few unfortunate buggers were stuck lugging around an authentic tank hunter system, the true missile launchers used for taking down heavy armour, bulky infrared sighting equipment and all.

Almost robotically he aimed the rifle at them. He was about to pull the trigger when he realised just what the hell he was doing.

(1min15)

Arthur watched, momentarily paralysed with shock at how easily it had all come to him, the first of the RPGs streaking towards him. Those were people in those tanks. And he had barely given it a moments thought.

The grenades hit, causing his monitor to fuzz in and out of static in front of his eyes. These were people as well. But he had just been ready to shoot at them as though they did not matter. He was appalled with himself. He has become a merciless killer, giving no regard, even a little disdain to the people he had just killed. He was half tempted to stop now, and just let these poor bastards at least get away with their lives.

His hands, which had been steady for the whole engagement suddenly began to shake again.

The radio crackled, "Supply to Cooper, supply to Cooper, is the way clear? Over." Then again, others were counting on him for their protection. Either way, someone would die.

Without any more doubt, he pulled the trigger, sending golden bolts of death streaking towards the squads. They had even less chance than the tanks.

(40 secs)

"Cooper to supply, way is clear, over."

He heard the trucks roll in behind him, whilst he kept a keen lookout for any fool who tried to attack now.

(20 secs)

The cable for the eva was plugged in. He could relax. At least for now.

He looked at the damage he had done. The still burning husks of the artillery vehicles. The flipped over tanks. The brown patches where the bullets had struck the ground, making the earth fly high into the sky and fall to the ground again. He consciously ignored the remains of the infantry squads.

He was amazed at how ... cold he had been.

His hands were shaking again.

* * *

Asuka could feel the sweat pouring off of her, flowing out of her skin and into the LCL, tainting it with her own salts and fluids.

Her eva now sat in the centre of a giant glowing orange dome, bullets and missiles slmming into it, rippling their explosions across it's surface.

The Americans inside had barely batted an eyelid before returning fire, and it was only due to the nature of Asuka's AT field that their returning shots were allowed to pass through.

She was still moving her eva forward, although each step felt like she was walking in water, forcing her barrier against the the ground in front, mines still exploding along the bottom of it, and struggling to keep it steady against the constant enemy barrage.

She knew that any identifiable weakness in her field would be exploited. She knew that any rounds let through the field would spell death for the troops she was protecting. She also knew that if she failed to protect every last one of them, her confidence would be shattered, and she would no longer be able to maintain her field.

She grit her teeth, focusing her mind more than she had ever done against the angels, willing the strength of her AT field to be maintained.

And took another step closer to the factory.

It was so close now...

* * *

Selee waited for the obelisk of their besieged colleague to report in. This was almost an unheard of event, and the whole council, including Kheel himself, were interested in the outcome of the battle.

Selee Ten was completely silent, even though he was the most agitated. His specialty was warfare, and the thought of his fellow council member acting without his guidance was troubling.

Strange though it may seem, these men had developed certain bonds between each other. They had worked together for so long that something approximating friendships had been formed between certain council members. Of course, as with any gathering of people, there was also friction between personalities, but largely the men all respected, if not actual like, each other.

And Selee Ten was one of those men who genuinely cared about his co-workers well being. He had started his career as a low level grunt, and had not got to his current position by the usual back stabbing and treacherous paths like some of the other council members. His experiences in his first squad had shaped his life, and the reason he worked so hard for Instrumentality now.

Selee Two appeared in front of the council, "They have advanced to the factory, and are invading with ease. My security forces have been largely wiped out, and the allied forces are in full retreat."

An updated overview of he valley with red dots representing the Nerv forces appeared at the centre of the councils circle.

Selee Ten whistled, "That British pilot handled his ambush well. And the defensive power of the Nerv brat is truly astonishing. Did we cause any damage?"

"Very little to the main force, but the green one was nearly disabled due to power failure. We scored a few hits, but it only sustained minor damage."

"Hmm..."

"What now?" Selee Two asked, his voice totally devoid of panic.

"Launch the jet alones. All of them. The factory is lost to us, but at least we can force them to destroy the stock, and possibly take some of them with it," Selee Ten advised. "I'm sorry friend, I have underestimated the ineffectiveness of conventional weapons against the evangelion."

"It is costly, but we have learnt a valuable lesson. It doesn't matter. I will launch the Jet alones and make my escape," Selee Two said.

"We may as well use this opportunity though," suggested Selee Four.

"How?"

A white obelisk, totally featureless apart from it's colour, appeared amongst the council members, and Selee Four continued, "We have re-synched the Prime and another in time to undergo a mission. With your permission, I'd like to send the Prime to retrieve the British Eva. It has no AT field, and presents limited risk."

"What about the Nerv evangelion?" asked Selee Ten.

"They will be quick, and Nerv will not be able to react in time."

"You have permission," Kheel agreed.

"Thank you. Your target is the British Eva," Selee Four ordered, changing it's focus to the white obelisk. "Do not pursue your own agenda this time, or there will be consequences."

"Understood," the white obelisk said, with a certain amount of apathy.

* * *

"You don't have a choice in the matter!" Gendo yelled back, forgetting his composure in the face of Shinji's defiance.

"Yes I do! Ever since I got here you've been forcing me to do this, this..." Shinji ended his sentence with a wild set of hand movements, still unable to bring himself to use strong language against his father.

Gendo stood up and slammed his hands on the desk, "Forcing you?! Yes, I've been forcing you! You're the only one who can do what needs to be done! Now grow up ad accept your responsibility!"

"Responsibility?! I don't have to be responsible now! The Angels are gone, and all that's left is your private little war against some people I've never heard of!" Shinji responded, anger keeping him from fleeing under his father's sudden rage.

"The situation hasn't changed! The world still hangs-"

"Don't you dare give me that speech! This is nothing like the Angels! This is just you and your, your pride!" Shinji interrupted.

Gendo eyes flared at his son's dismissal of his plans, "Pride! You child! What can you know of my reasons?! What do you know about sacrifice?! You stand there casting judgement on me about what you've been through, but you will not accept the work I've put in to secure your future!"

Shinji screamed back, "I don't want your future!"

* * *

Deep below the surface, as the American soldiers poured into the upper levels of the factory, Selee Two made his escape.

It was an odd feeling for the grey haired man, as he hobbled down a catwalk, cane clicking on the metal as he went. It was a feeling that you never encountered much when you regularly spent the lives of thousands of people, often at the same time.

But it was definitely there. A faint feeling of regret. He scarcely imagined it possible; the parts of him that had been replaced with the latest in robotics to lengthen his life had taken away all but the necessary glands and organs necessary to produce the appropriate chemical for emotion. Consequently he felt no anger, no jealousy, and no lust. The only feelings that he was aware of was his sense of self preservation, his duty to mankind and his obsession with money.

But the regret was still there. Was it because he had left that fresh-faced lieutenant, his second in command, to face the faceless Nerv soldiers alone? No, the lieutenant was a fool, and insignificant to the grander picture. Nerv was almost doing the world a favour by removing him from existence. So why... ah. He had left his favourite mug behind. You could not buy that mug any more; the company that had produced it had winked off the face of the earth during the second impact.

Oh well, when making an escape sacrifices had to be made. And he owed much of his life to perfecting the art of running away, usually with a bag full of profits. He always planned an escape route, and this particular one started with the monorail system that ran the length of the factory.

And he had already moved any information of value to his secure deposit bank electronically, along with the remaining budget from the factory. There was little in the way of profit, but had always believed in taking a deposit from consumers before making anything substantial. Losses, though heavy on this venture, but not as bad as they could have been.

He rounded a corner, to see the monorail car resting in pieces under a pile of rubble. He sighed, and began the long walk down the factory. It was a few miles, and would take several hours at his top speed. That did not matter, the vehicle he had procured for his discrete exit was one of the finest stealth craft of the day. He could take his leave when he wanted.

The sounds of the battle far overhead seemed insignificant to the click of a cane on the factory floor.

* * *

"Sir! We have reports from the front about large mechanicals appearing from the factory! Description fits the combat Jet Alone profile!"

The colonel sighed, "Guess we aren't going to be able to take them in tact. Lady this is your field of experience," he said turning to Misato, "What's the best way to use those toys of yours?"

Misato smiled, "Against those things? Their power sources are hydrogen fuel cells right?"

A minor officer piped up, "Intel says yes."

Misato grinned evilly and picked up a headset radio, "Then all we have to do is point her at them. Asuka?"

"Little busy now Misato..."

"It's okay, you can stop maintaining the field."

"Oh thank god!"

"Can you see the Jet Alones coming out of the factory?"

"Yeah?"

"Destroy them."

There was a momentary pause before Asuka spoke again, "Manned or unmanned?"

Misato looked around the command deck, "Anyone know?"

Another minor officer rushing past yelled over his shoulder, "Communications reports picking up weirdly coded signals. That suggests machine code instructions."

"Unmanned Asuka. Have fun!" Misato said.

"Will do!" Asuka replied, her voice full of excitement and relief.

"Colonel!" yelled the intelligence officer.

"What now?" grumbled the old veteran.

"We have pictures from the battlefield. You might want to take a look at this..."

The colonel hustled over to the officers monitor. Bending down to examine the pictures closer he swore, "What the god damn hell?!"

Misato rushed over to look at the pictures, "What's wrong?"

The colonel looked at her, venom pouring out of his eyes, "These are pictures of the enemy forces we've taken out. Look at the flags on the tanks and uniforms."

Misato looked closer and gasped. She looked at him in horror, "What does that mean?"

"Those are the stars and stripes little lady. That means we've just taken down one of our own battalions!" he slammed his fist down on the desk. "Someone in Washington's fucked up royal! They've gotten us fighting other Americans!"

Misato straightened up, "I thought we had the full cooperation of this country..."

The colonel glared at her, "That ain't the issue!" he growled, "Those markings are from my old unit! Those were my boys from the Canadian campaign! Someones going to pay for this!"

* * *

Asuka literally stood as a demon gatekeeper swinging robotic death with her battleaxe at the mouth of the factory.

She had swept aside all of the jet alones that had already escaped from the factory in a matter of minutes, their metallic carcasses now left to rust in the American countryside as a testament to her brutality to cybernetic imitations of her glorious eva.

Now she stood at the exit way they were flooding forth from, each swing of her axe crushing and cleaving the titanic robots as they obligingly marched to their own destruction. Piles of the mechanical limbs and bodies of the fallen lay on each side of her, and she swung and counted under her breath.

"Thirty-two!" she panted, as another fell under her axe, catching another with the reverse swing, "Thirty-three!"

Now she was having fun!

Finally the flow of robots ended, the last few barely even constructed and merely skeletons with a few motors and servos attached.

She brushed the perceived sweat from her brow, "Misato!" she half sang, "I'm finished!"

"Good job Asuka. Looks like we're pretty much done here, so bring the eva back to the ba- Wait a minute!"

Asuka looked shocked, "Huh? What's wrong?"

"Incoming signals! They match the eva that attacked Tokyo-3!"

Asuka gripped her axe handle with renewed determination, despite the exhaustion from having maintained her AT field for so long. "It's going to be a long day Misato... you better buy me something nice to make up for it."

"Just be careful Asuka, there's two of them. Arsa will be covering you from a distance. We can't risk him in direct combat yet."

Asuka snorted, "Is an eva without an AT field really that useless?"

Misato was silent for a few moments, "Well, they seem to think so," she suddenly said, "They're flying straight for him! Asuka move to intercept!"

Asuka nodded, and checked she had enough line on her power cable to run the distance, "On my way!"

She sprinted a little way towards Arthur's location, and saw the white eva's flying down to the battlefield. She could see their hideously shaped heads, and their impossibly large wings.

She picked up a tree as she passed it, ripping it out of the ground, dirt and grass cascading from it's roots to the valley floor behind her. Her eva skidded to a halt and she used her momentum to hurl the tree at the descending monsters, watching with satisfaction as it connected with their AT fields, splintering into toothpicks from the impact.

"Hey!" she shouted, even though no one could hear her outside the plug, "Why don't you play with someone worth fighting huh?!"

As if they had heard her, the white eva's both circled around, and swooped down to her.

* * *

Arthur stared, paralysed by the fear of seeing the white monster of his nightmares again. And now there were two of them. Wings flapping wildly as they swooped and slashed at Asuka's red evangelion. She was swinging her battle axe in wide strokes, not quite having the reach or speed to catch them. Their blows bounced off of her AT field, which looked like it was rapidly decreasing in strength, the orange glow seeming dimmer and dimmer with each strike.

Intellectually he knew he should go help her. It was what his instructors had told him, what popular movies encouraged him to do. But his heart was exploding with fear.

Hands shaking, rattling the joy sticks in his hands, he could only see that night, that monstrous grin, approaching slowly, mocking his lack of power. Even now he could feel it's hands encircling his neck, the absolute impotence he felt as it lifted him off the ground, and squeezed him gently to death, a virtual god proving to a worthless existence just how fragile it's grip on life was.

He could hear Misato yelling something at him through the radio. The colonels voice was there two, a constant berating tone, even if he was not conscious of the words. He could not understand them, his mind totally blanked by terror.

His hands finally shook free from the control sticks, and he lost the feling from his eva's senses. They dropped, shaking freely, the vibration of his muscles mirroring the crazed pounding of his heart.

They brushed past something.

Numbly he looked down at the cap badge, swaying gently in the LCL.

Those three words.

Resolve pumped into his veins, fuelled by memories of his instructors, of his uncle, even of his mother and his father. Recent images of men collapsing under his eva's rifle threw oil onto the fire of his sudden certainty, the shame of only going so far to keep his word emboldening him into action.

He raised his still shaking hand, glaring at it as if it were the worlds greatest traitor. Fury forced his fingers to slowly close, and he clenched his hand into a fist, willing the unwanted vibration to dissipate. His fist wobbled for a few seconds more, but went still.

The next few moments were lost in a haze of brave thoughtlessness. He was aware of running across the plain, his power cable dropped uselessly behind him. He saw the battery timer for his eva flash and rapidly count down as he leaped over the factory roof and bringing one of he white evas down as he landed.

He remembered cirling his arms around it into a fierce bear hug, totally unwilling to let go. He felt them both roll onto the factory roof, Asuka screaming German profanities at him, and Misato equally yelling fierce instructions at him.

The factory roof was already weakened by the air strike, and the countless thuds and earthquakes caused by artillery fire and Asuka's brawl with the jet alones. It cracked, tendrils spreading in all directions, and he fell into darkness, taking the production model monster with him. He felt it kick him away, just as he slammed into the factory floor, machinery crumbling underneath him as he bounced further into the darkness.

Arthur rose to his feet, his heart pounding. It had the edge over him. He only had, he checked, three minutes of power left. After that it would all be over and that guy would try and finish off Asuka. He could not let that happen. The monitor system registered the low light levels, activating the night vision backups. He was surrounded by an eerie green glow, that failed to present him with a clear view of the world. Assuming it to be too dark for even the sophisticated detection systems, he strained his eyes to take stock of his surroundings.

His eva barely fit in the factory. He had a clearance of about twenty metres from his shoulder blades to the roof. He grimaced. This fight was not going to be pleasant. The low ceiling would make any kind of manoeuvring difficult, and if his combat instructors had taught him anything, it was that restrictive situations were to be avoided.

He hit a few buttons on his control panel, and the progressive knife flipped out of it's housing. He grabbed it, and was knocked aside by the white eva's charge. He hadn't seen it coming, it was too dark. He could barely see.

The two evas crashed into more expensive sounding equipment. Arthur ended up underneath it again, but this time he brought the eva's knees up into a ball and kicked it up. He heard it thump into the ceiling, and car sized chunks of concrete bounced off his armour. It fell to the ground next to him, and he leapt his eva on top of it, striking down with the knife. It gripped his knife arm, and a struggle began between them, both fighting to gain control over the weapon.

He could almost feel the other pilots fear, his desperate attempt to humanise his opponent. He could sense the aggression pouring off of him. He was only a few dozen metres from him, lost in the green enhanced haze. Locked in a gutter fight, the two evas each trying to gain the upper hand. In the dark, a mad scramble for the last one standing, both feeding off of each others survival instinct. Arthur could smell the anger buzzing around him, a chaotic mess of sensations, yet infinitely focused on the pilot in the other war machine.

The white eva, in an act of desperation, brought it's head up sharply, neatly nutting the green eva. Arthur was stunned from the impact, stars exploding in his eyes. He lost control of the eva for a second, the shock causing the eva to slacken it's grip on the weapon. The white demon took advantage of this, twisting the green eva's arm around and plunging the knife into it's chest. Arthur gasped as the pain swept across him. The green eva snarled in protest, and the knee came up sharply between the attacker's legs, a learnt reflex from back alley scraps where both sides forgot whatever reasons they had, and just went for the throat.

This did not appear to have the desired effect of leaving the other guy in a helpless ball, probably due to the fact that the other pilot remembered that evas aren't equipped in that fashion. What it did result in was the other eva forcing Arthur over onto his back, flattening more of the factory equipment as he went. It reached over and dragged the knife, still plunged up to the hilt in the green eva, across the body, a jet of blood disappearing into the darkness of the roof.

Arthur was in agony, the fire across his chest burning away any rational thought. The white eva was quick to push it's advantage, vaulting on top of his eva, simultaneously squeezing with it's legs and pummelling it's midsection. Arthur shut his eyes tightly, hoping to God the pain would end. His arms were tight across his chest, warding off the invisible fists that battered him.

The white eva stopped it's pummelling, instead driving it's hand into the green evas chest. It got a good grip on the chest armour and wrenched it away, tearing a good amount of flesh with it. Arthur felt as though he would pass out from the pain. He fuzzily heard an electronic voice tell him that Carbon Dioxide was being pumped into the LCL mix. Evidently the life support systems had picked up on the fact he was hyperventilating. Increasing the carbon dioxide content reduced oxygen dependency, keeping the pilot more or less sane. No amount of clever biology was going to keep Arthur's heart from beating out of his chest.

The white eva began to dig through the soft inner tissue of the British made eva, blood oozing out into the factory, chunks of meat clinging to the now unused tools. Arthur felt it all as though it were his own body, the monster blindly groping his own chest, ripping apart his ribs, revelling in the ravaging of his innards. Sanity was not something he wanted right now.

And yet he could do nothing.

He could barely think.

He had no defence against this white monstrosity. And to be fair, he started it. His body screamed at his mind to make it stop, to somehow make the hurting go away. But he couldn't. The pain was too intense, far worse than that first dreaded night near Dover.

He was going to die in this cold worthless place, somewhere by rights he should not be, instead enjoying the carefree life that was owed to him. Not here, blinded by darkness, under the tender mercies of a butcher, heart beat ringing in his ears, blotting out the guttural war chant of his enemy.

He imagined himself being torn limb from limb. He imagined a world where the pain had stopped because he had died. He imagined the white eva rising victorious from the factory to attack Asua, move on to to kill Misato at the command post, fly to England to lay waste to his home, and wipe out any last vestiges of his existence.

He discovered an intense hatred for this monster, this demon that plagued his nightmares for so long. How dare it single him out! How dare it ravage his body like this! How dare it even think of torturing him like this, of savaging his already exhausted mind with it's gouging attacks.

How dare it!

His right shoulder blade cracked open. The white eva stopped its grisly excavation to examine this new development. Art gripped the pilots sticks with a vigour born of self preservation, eyes blazing intensely in the animal lust for survival. He felt something wash out from him, and intense desire to cause pain, to destroy.

His eva's arms reached up, and rammed the white demon onto the shoulder blade. The eva emitted a low rumble of primal fury. The wave of loathing and hatred covered the white eva, and he could feel something vanish under his onslaught of emotions. There was a series of pops as the gas launched grenades fired from the blade housing, with enough concussive force to demolish several city blocks.

The white eva was blasted away, it's AT field totally cancelled by Arthur's blood lust, leaving him with the more immediate problem of a half torn out chest and now another wound from the grenade explosions. He tried to get the eva to stand so it could escape, but the best he could manage was a crawl.

"Move you lousy piece of junk..." he grunted drowsily, the burst of emotion and torturous pain sapping him of his will to fight, almost wrenching the joysticks from their housings, willing the eva to move faster. The white eva landed with a heavy thud next to him. An alarm wailed in his ear. He glanced at the damage readout. The blast had gotten more of him than he had thought, the plug life support systems were failing. He could taste the subtle change in the LCL, once a tasteless goo, now something reminiscent of blood, the filtration systems finally letting the natural pollutants run free.

Seeing he could not escape, Arthur settled for tearing his opponent apart. He would be damned if he gave up now, not after all he had gone through. And he was far too out of it to think of anything more complex. The LCL in the plug was rapidly becoming unusable, much like blood in the body if separated from the lungs for too long. He was becoming short of breath, oxygen deprivation getting the better of him. Little black dots started to pop out of his vision, in stark contrast to the red haze in the corners of his eyes, all adding to the green glow of the monitors to produce a nauseating assault on his eyes.

The green eva punched up off the floor, it's pilot grunting with the exertion, landing on top of the production model. Weakly his eva clenched around the others chest armour, gripping it tightly with its fingers. But the white eva was not going to allow that. Snarling it brought it's legs up, kicking Arthur's eva into the factory. Arthur had kept a hold of the chest plate though, and it was torn free, exposing the eva series' own skin.

Arthur was now nearly out for the count. His attempt to save Asuka had turned into a complete failure. His power was nearly gone as the white eva lifted him up, ramming him into the ceiling. The green eva was impaled to the factory roof by it's shoulder blades.

The white eva began to hit him. The force of the blows gently swayed the green eva back and forth. Arthur could barely feel the pain now. His world was now fuzzy, growing dark at the edges, black lines feeling in from the corner of his vision. The plug's life support must have been destroyed in the grenade explosions. He was finding it hard to breathe

Dumbly, he rolled his head over to where his power read out was. Barely twenty seconds worth of useful power. And there only two things holding him in position. He could taste his anger in the warm, foul smelling plug. The arrogance of that monster to think he would succumb to humiliation. Well, he would see how defeated this pilot was.

Dreamily his hand wandered down to a small panel to the side of his chair. He opened it to reveal another console, something only the plug technicians were supposed to know about. He keyed in a number combination, and a small lever popped out on the other side of the seat. This would release the eva from it's shoulder blades, the battery supply for the eva. If he released it he would have roughly two seconds of useful power. It was certain death. Arthur gripped it, and pulled anyway.

Hydraulic clamps keeping the shoulder blades in place suddenly went slack. The green eva dropped from the ceiling, sliding cleanly from the shoulder pads. The white eva recoiled in shock from the sudden movement.

Arthur barely thought about his actions. The green eva stepped forward, almost on autopilot, thrusting his hand through the exposed flesh of the white eva, delving deep, past the organs, past the muscle and bones, a gauntlet of fury brushing aside the production models defences.

He gripped something that felt like a smooth gem and squeezed.

And the world turned to fire.

* * *

"I'm leaving this city, and I'm going to get as far away from you as I can," Shinji screamed.

"I'll have you arrested!" Gendo threatened.

"You can try, but you'll have to explain to the rest of the world why the boy that saved them from the Angels is suddenly a criminal!"

Gendo changed tack, "And if you don't stay in this city, where will you go?!"

"Back to my teacher's house. He was more of a father than you ever were!" Shinji yelled, his resolve pumping more confidence into his voice than he had ever felt in front of his father before.

Gendo's mind flailed wildly in his head, increasingly desperate to keep his son by his side. And then his madly searching psyche settled upon Shinji's greatest weakness, the one thought he knew would bind his son to him forever.

"Good bye father. You won't see me again," Shinji said, spinning around and walking out of the office.

"And so when people need you, you're going to run away?" Gendo half snarled.

Shinji stopped at the door way. He hesitated for a few moments. Rage, bile, all justifiable dark emotions slammed against his deep desire to be accepted, his simple wish for his father to like him, to be proud of him, to stem the flow of that little boys tears as he clutched his suitcase at the train station.

But he had given in to that blubbering kid before.

"No," he said, "I'm walking."

The door didn't slam behind him. It closed normally, clicking dully, but echoing loudly in Gendo's head.

Gendo sat down heavily in his chair, and angrily pulled out some paper work from his desk, attacking the bureaucracy with an animalistic vigour, his Nerv issue pen jabbing and ruthlessly stabbing the forms and reports.

But slowly his frustration faded, melting away with the ink from his pen.

His work became slower, more laboured, his pen strokes lingering on each page a little longer with each passing minute, until it no longer travelled across the lines, marking his thoughts down for the next person to read.

The pen clattered to the desk. His hand went limp, and his neck seemed to loose the strength to hold up his head.

He let himself fall forward onto the desk, not caring about the papers any more.

Perhaps this time he had gone too far, and pushed too much, trusted in his son's desire to please him without thinking about the consequences for too long. Shinji was one of the last remnants of Yui that he had, both a painful but necessary reminder of his wife.

Perhaps this time he had lost him for good.

Men who do great things like Gendo, no matter what we think about their motivation or outcome, still deserve respect. We'll leave him now, to save him his shame as honest emotion prevailed in his heart.

* * *

The man who used to have so much influence and power on the worlds economy now lay under rubble, breathing the acrid ash filled air as heavily as his mechanically augmented lungs would allow.

He could not believe it. Of all the damned luck. Just as he had been making good his escape plan, two obstacles had literally fallen out of the sky. The member of Selee sighed. Irritating evangelions bringing their fight inside the factory. Didn't they realise the cost of the equipment used in the manufacture of Jet Alones. Nerv had a lot to answer for indeed.

Not to mention the cost of pinning a member of Selee underneath a ton of rubble. He had heard the fall of the two giant mecha, not really paying it much heed. They had been far to far down the factory to bother him that much, and he was nearly at his escape craft anyway. However, whatever the evangelions had done to get in to the factory had caused the roof to come down on him. He had, in retrospect, been fortunate. The rubble had merely crushed a lot of the prosthetics which made up a good proportion of his body, a lot of the organic parts had been left relatively in tact.

Then the explosion had come, roasting his flesh and nearly blinding him with it's ferocity. Again, fate had been cruelly kind to him. The rubble which was slowly squeezing away his life had protected him from the worst of the blast.

The downside to this was the fact he could not escape. He was unable to move in any serious fashion, and unless a kindly soul came down here to help him, he would either be captured, or would simply die of starvation. Neither prospect filled him with much hope, but the idea of starving to death was not as honourable a passing as he had hoped.

There was the sound of footsteps. Perhaps it was a kindly soul? He doubted it. They were getting closer now. The old man twisted his head to try and see the face of the person who was approaching. He couldn't quite see the face, but the uniform was pretty clear. The uniform of a Nerv sergeant, prepped for combat. He had signed the document releasing funds for them himself. He was already regretting that.

"So, you have found me."

The sergeant squatted next to the old man. He reached down to the old man's jacket, dusting away some ashen scraps of clothing, checking that the badge of Selee was there. The sergeant stood back up.

"Are you going to take me into custody? Or has Ikari got other plans for his former superiors?"

He heard the subtle click of a safety catch being released.

"I see."

**To be continued...**

Pre-Finishing A/N: Must... finish... chapter! RAARGH!!

Pre-Finishing A/N 2: *gasp* Nearly...*wheeze* there... DORYAAAH!

A/N: Chapter... out. *thud*

In retrospect I should have broken this up into two chapters, but that would break the overall plan for the entire story. The problem here is that action takes a lot of description to get across the right feeling, and since this is Athur's first outing I wanted you as a reader to be as overwhelmed as him by the experience.

Similarly with Asuka, her parts are shorter because she's thinking less about what she's doing. At first she's focused on maintaining her field, and later she's simply going through combat motions against the JAs.

Gendo was tricky here. I think he slips a little out of character, but I think given the extra work load he's put on himself, and the emotional weight of dealing with his sons rejection would allow him to crack a bit. And I wanted to show his more human side.

Still waiting for my first review since the first chapter, but massive thanks to the people who have favourited or put this story on alert. You guys be awesome!


	6. Chapter 6

_Weep for yourself, my man,_

_You'll never be what is in your heart._

_Weep little lion man,_

_You're not as brave as you were at the start._

_Rate youself and rape yourself,_

_Take all the courage you have left._

_Wasted on fixing all the problems,_

_That you made in your own head._

_- Anonymous band_

**Chapter 6 - End of the beginning**

Asuka fumbled her key into the lock of what she now considered home.

It was early in the morning and it had been a long trip. The eva's had both been brought back to Japan on a large cargo submersible on loan from the British Navy, who seemed to be in love with anything that went under water these days. The pilots and Nerv personnel not necessary to move the eva had all gone on a much faster air craft after all the boring debriefing stuff.

She was congratulated for taking down one on the production model evangelions within seconds of Arthur's intervention. His sudden appearance in her fight gave her enough of a distraction to cleanly clip the white eva's wings, and cleave it's S2 organ in half. She barely managed to contain the resulting explosion with her AT field, shielding the allied troops from the blast.

Arthur had been reprimanded for reckless action, and even the colonel had gotten in a few gowling words about proper battle field discipline. Arthur had just stayed strangely quiet throughout all of it, nodding in the right places, seemingly paying attention, but his eyes drifting in and out of focus.

Misato had said something about getting an AT field reaction from his eva. Maybe the poor dumb kid was just reeling from the shock of feeling that kind of power. Asuka remembered the first time she made her own field, all those years ago. She was literally bouncing off of walls for a week. But to be fair, she was only six at the time.

The American colonel had managed to keep up his rage for the entire process, and was still livid when Nerv and the British delegation left his base. His yelled phone calls could be heard clear across the base.

But that was all in the past now, and Asuka was just tired.

Misato had dropped her off at their apartment, saying something about writing initial reports, and collecting situation reports from the other staff, whilst dlivering some other reports to the commander, and filing other reports. Or something like that. The truth was that Asuka had stopped listening when Misato mentioned reports.

She opened the door, dragging her suitcase behind her.

And bumped into Shinji, carrying his own, much smaller bag on his shoulder.

They both jumped.

"Asuka!"

"Shinji!"

There were a few moments embarrassed silence whilst both teens looked for something to say to each other.

"How... how was the mission?" Shinji asked.

It seemed like years since they had spoken to each other. True, Asuka had tried pestering him in her usual fashion before, but he had been so cold, and so distant that it was like talking to a glacial wall.

"Not bad," she finally said guardedly. There was another few moments scilence while she considered what to say next, "Met the new pilot."

"Oh?" said Shinji, probably only feigning interest.

"Yeah. He's British."

"I... heard."

"Yeah. You probably have."

"Yeah."

Awkward quiet again flooded the little doorway of the apartment. Asuka still stood in the doorway, her luggage still in her hand, and Shinji stood a little way into the apartment, still in the process of putting on his shoes.

"Um..."

"Going somewhere?" Asuka asked, indicating his bag.

"Um... yeah. Back to my teacher's place."

Asuka nodded, "That sounds nice."

"Yeah..."

"When are you coming back?"

Shinji paused. "I'm not sure..."

Asuka dragged her luggage out of the way, and put on a friendly, if a little forced, smile, "Well it's good to have a break every now and then. I really should go back to Germany to visit my family sometime too!"

Shinji was still for a second, and then finished putting on his shoes, "Yeah. You should," he mumbled quietly.

"Are you going by train?"

"Yeah. Easiest way to get there."

"Okay. See you when you get back," Asuka said brightly, trying to reduce the awkwardness of the situation.

"Okay," Shinji walked past her quickly, "Bye, Asuka," he said over his shoulder, and disappeared down the stairs of their apartment building.

Asuka shut the door, and breathed out. She hoped she had not been too forceful with him that time. That was the most he had said to her in weeks, and she had tried not to scare him off, even though she was itching to yell at him for ignoring her.

She dragged her suitcase to her room, and felt something subtly wrong with the apartment. It felt more empty in here somehow. It was also a lot more clean that it usually was, but she passed that off as being because she and Misato had not been there for a few days. The air usually had a faint smell of perfume and the two ladies left their marks in the form of discarded beer cans and fashion magazines.

The apartment now was scrupulously clean, and even the bins had been emptied. It seemed very cold, and strangely lonely in here.

She kicked her luggage into her room, and patrolled around the place, wondering why everything felt so off. Nothing was out of place, and everything looked the same. There was still the pile of her's and Misato's shoes at the doorway, piled up in the way that Shinji thought looked tidy. Well, Shinji's shoes weren't at the door any more, but that was because he had just gone out. Wait, did he only have one pair of shoes?

Icy thoughts began to pool in her stomach, and she walked, quite steadily to Shinji's room, even though she wanted to run. Outside the door she took a deep breath to calm her suddenly rapidly beating heart, and slid it open.

It was empty. Completely empty.

Even the bed had been stripped, and there was the faint after-smell of vacuuming.

Automatically she rushed to the door, and in a daze slipped on her shoes, and grabbed the door handle.

She stopped as she realised she had forgotten her key.

She stood there for a few minutes, her mind running to catch up with her body's actions, her hand still on the door handle. She could hear the tick of a clock somewhere in the apartment, counting away the seconds of her hesitation.

What could she do?

Run out and drag him back by his hair? What good would that do? She could scream at him until he relented and came home, but that would be a false return, with no guarantee he wouldn't just run away again. She could beg him to come back, but that just was not how she lived her life, and he would see through a deception like that.

Her hand came down slowly.

Maybe it was better like this. He hadn't been happy here the past few months, and probably never had been truly happy. Better for him to go home now, job done and Angel's defeated. Asuka, Wondergirl and Arthur could handle the rest.

"Fine," she said, her voice hollow in the empty apartment.

The clock ticked as she stood there, the conflict in her heart openly contradicting the resolve of her conclusion.

"Stupid Shinji."

* * *

Arthur felt the box fall apart in his hands.

He sighed. A few thousand miles, from England to America, a plane ride, a train trip, and then a private car from the train station, and the damn cardboard decides to fail two inches outside his door.

He stood in front of the door of his new apartment, large backpack on his shoulders, and now some scraps of cardboard in his hands, the recent remains of a box which held his dress uniform and some other fragile items of clothing which now lay in a pile at his feet.

He dropped the fragments of his box onto the pile, and took a key out of his pocket. At least the floor here in Japan was relatively clean. If the same thing had happened in London his clothes would probably have been ruined beyond repair. But this place was destroyed and rebuilt so much, everything was still spotless.

He opened his door, and dumped his heavy bag in front of it to keep it from shutting on him. He bundled up his fallen belongings as best he could, and went inside, stepping over his bag.

His apartment was actually his own, signed and paid for out of his own pocket. The British Army was giving him a residency allowance, mainly to keep him out of the Nerv base. While the logic of having him stay on the base near the evangelion could not be faulted, the diplomatic core had been kicking up a fuss about how much control Nerv would have over their pilot. So, although staying in the Nerv geofront would be smarter and cheaper, he was going to have to live out here.

Major Katsuragi had told him that, if he wanted, she was going to have a spare room in her place in a few days, but Arthur had declined the offer. The look in her eyes when she told him about the room suggested that her apartment was not going to be a happy place for a while. And he found out later that Asuka already lived there. While he didn't dislike Asuka, judging by how she was on their first meeting and the trip to Japan, she didn't seem like a very easy going housemate.

And besides, he would be a fourteen year old boy living with two women he was not related to. Hijinx would undoubtedly ensue.

He walked into his tiny apartment. It had looked bigger in the pictures. He sighed again, dropping his bundle to the floor. There was a small, round coffee table in the centre of the room, a pretty large TV in the corner, a folded up futon next to the wall, and some flat pack furniture leaning next to it, waiting for him to waste several hours putting it together.

He grabbed his bag from the door, and let it slam behind him.

Small kitchen, with just a stove and a sink. There was a small fridge in the cupboard space under the work tops, and no oven. He looked inside the other cupboards and found nothing apart from a startled spider and some fragments of the rooms recent refurbishment. The walls still smelled of paint, and the tatami mats in the room creaked under foot.

He looked inside the bathroom, and was disappointed to find a fairly normal looking toilet. It had some weird pipes and a valve on the seat, but was nothing like the electronic wonders he had heard about. The bathroom also had a square bath, which looked just big enough for him to squat uncomfortably in. Fortunately it also doubled as a shower, so it looked like he would not have to worry about breaking his knees when he needed to wash.

He went back into the main, and indeed, only other room. It would have to do. It was all he could really afford in this city, especially since most of the housing sites had already been spoken for by the old residents, who were flooding back to reclaim their homes in the wake of the Angels destruction. The apartment was a lot further from the Nerv base than he would have liked, and a long commute to his school as well.

He sighed again. School. He couldn't believe they were still making him go to school. As if piloting a giant robot was not hard work enough, he was going to have to learn about algebra in a foreign language, and he still had no idea what they planned for him to do during English lessons. Maybe he would just have to feign ignorance, or worse, be forever used to demonstrate pronunciation.

He collapsed onto the floor next to the coffee table. The landlord was kind enough to leave a tiny cup and a packet of green tea as a welcoming gift, along with an old looking water heater that was already plugged in. He waved a hand over it, and imagined he could feel heat coming off it.

Arthur dug through the pile that was the remains of his cardboard box, and pulled out a small bag of English breakfast tea. Tetley tea, his uncle had warned, was one of the rarest commodities outside the British Isles. There were imitations everywhere, but nothing could compare to the tea found in a humble British supermarket, so Arthur had brought his own with him.

He dropped one tea bag into the tiny cup, and poured in hot water. It looked like two moutfuls of tea to him, maybe three tops, and there was no milk to go in it, but after about two days of near constant travel, he was damn well going to have a cup of tea.

Arthur stretched out on the floor, waiting for his tea to brew. Almost instantly images from the battlefield flooded his mind. It was happening a lot to him these days.

He shook himself, and sat up. Taking a sip of the scalding tea, he glanced at the flat pack furniture. It looked like it would keep the images away for a frustrating hour or two.

* * *

The council stood in the kind of silence that only featureless obelisks can.

The circle was broken. A painful gap where Selee Two had once stood was flooding the pitch black cavernous communication chamber. All eyes, if the squares had them, were focused on his absence.

That one of their members had been killed was unthinkable.

"This is a dark day," commented Selee Seven.

His comment was met with more silence, members of the council either ignoring it, or unable to add to it.

Kheel, behind his mask as Selee One was concerned. Selee Two had been pivotal in engineering world economics for the past decade. With his support, Selee had been able to exercise enough control over global markets that anything the organisation needed was easily purchased, and for a fraction of the price if left to natural price selection.

Now, the council members would be just as subject to market forces as the rest of the world. Great construction projects, like the Nerv geofront or jet alone factory, would be an economic impossibility. Yes, Selee Five could work out the logistics, and Selee Three could work around the bureaucratic red tape but Selee's power was now significantly limited by it's wallet.

Someone would have to take Selee Two's place, even if at a reduced capacity.

"Our fallen comrade requires a successor," he told the council. It was both a statement of fact, and a subtle order for a suitable volunteer. "His duties to this council still need to be filled, even after his death."

"He'll be a tough act to follow," was Selee Ten's gruff response.

"I can assume some of his duties," offered Selee Eleven.

"Are you certain you can keep them up along with your current duties?" asked Selee Five, perhaps the only member of the council apart from Kheel who knew exactly what each person on the council was doing.

"It shouldn't present a problem. Legal matters often coincide with economics after all."

"Very well," Kheel agreed.

"We need to discuss our revenge against Ikari," Selee Seven said, an edge to his voice.

"Yes we should! We should take his headquarters now!" snapped Selee Ten.

Selee Three cut in, "We can't. Your stunt with using the American troops has the entire world on edge. That colonel has sparked off something big in the States, and he's making a big enough fuss that people are talking about a civil war."

"So?"

"So now the entire world is on edge. The biggest, most well equipped and experienced army in the world is fracturing down the middle. Every country around the world is recalling their troops from joint foreign operations, and looking at defending their own borders. A few are even looking to revisit old grievances they have with the Americans. Everyone's watching each other so intently now, I couldn't even get you a foreign bodyguard."

"Not even mercanaries?"

"Even if we could afford them, they're being hired by the battalion by other countries."

Selee Eight agreed, "The UN peace keeping forces are in tatters because of these new defensive policies. It's power is falling completely apart. We even lost the aircraft carrier that was supposedly given as a gift from the Americans."

"And those production model eva's are about as reliable as an armed snowman in the desert!" spat Selee Ten.

Selee Four spoke up, "We are encountering significant personality conflicts within our dummy system. We are working on some... preventative measures to stop it happening again, but we're still waiting on the Science and Research division to provide us with necessary materials," he said pointedly.

"We've hit set backs because of political pressures and prohibitive costs of production," Selee Twelve shot back, the usually silent member ready to defend his division with full force.

Selee Three bristled with perceived injured pride, "The political division has had it's hands full ju-"

"Silence."

The council went quiet, Kheel's calmly spoken command forestalling the bickering and finger pointing that would follow.

He allowed the silence to continue for a few moments, contemplating the hole in the council left by Selee Two. How quickly these men jumped at each other when deviating from the Scrolls. Perhaps they finally realised just what a fragile and dificult task it was to drive human evolution.

"You brought it to the council's attention," he said, his voice singleing out Selee Seven, "What do you suggest?"

Selee Seven, if the black boxes had expressions, seemed to smile, "It's simple really. We attack Ikari in his only weak spot."

"What is that?"

Selee Seven was the council's head of intelligence. Although Kheel and Selee Five kept tabs on what the other council members were doing, even they were not as privy to the sheer quantity of information available to him. And he knew exactly where to put the blade into Ikari's back. He had known since he first met the man, and had seen the best place to make him bleed.

"The one weakness he refuses to acknowledge, and the same weakness that resides at the core of Unit 01..."

* * *

It was late into the afternoon before Misato got back to her home.

Misato walked into her apartment, small satchel containing her uniform and a few other items dangling from one elbow, and a small mountain of reports for her to get through before tomorrow. Aoba and Fyutsuki had been competing for who could generate the most data and results from the plug tests, and with Ritsuko no longer around to help her, Misato had to go through them all on her own, before tomorrow.

She grimaced, repeating the words 'before tomorrow' in her head several times in case a frosty can of beer tempted her away from work.

She staggered into the kitchen under the weight of the papers. She saw Asuka slumped over the kitchen table in a loose fitting t-shirt and a comfortable looking pair of shorts.

Misato sighed inwardly. Asuka still looked skinny from her self imposed exile, but she was already showing signs of filling out properly again.

She dropped the papers on the table, and sat next to her at the table, resting her face on her hand. "What's up Asuka?"

Asuka didn't respond, and just held up an envelope.

Misato opened it. Inside was just a key and a few Yen notes. Misato sighed outwardly this time, "I guess saying goodbye was too hard for him."

Asuka slowly turned her head around, "You knew he was leaving?"

"Yeah. He called me while we were in America. He had a big fight with the Commander, and wanted to leave as soon as possible. I thought he would wait to say goodbye to us though," Misato said, taking the notes out and sealing up the key in the envelope.

"Well he kind of did. I caught him leaving this morning when you dropped me off."

"Oh god. You didn't hit him too hard did you?" she asked, counting out the notes. They were just enough to cover Shinji's share of the bills for the last month.

Asuka nearly giggled, "Misato!"

Misato grinned, "Sorry, sorry. So? What did he say?"

"Nothing. Didn't even mention he was leaving."

"Oh."

"He said he was going back to his teacher's place, and like an idiot I thought he meant a short trip or something." She laughed mirthlessly, "I even said 'See you when you get back!'"

Misato nodded, resting her chin on her hand again, to look side long at her young charge, "Yeah that sounds like something Shinji would do. He's not big on the drama."

"I know, but he could have said something, right?"

"Yeah."

There was silence whilst the two women thought about how different the apartment felt without Shinji's presence. Misato could already feel the potential build up of beer cans.

She turned to Asuka, "You going to be okay?"

The little red head gave her a quizzical look full of pride, "Of course I'll be okay! It's not like my life revolved around the invincible Shinji. And besides, Hikari told me in an email that she's coming back in a few days. And school officially starts next week."

Misato smiled, "Okay then." She looked at the fridge, "Hey want a beer?"

"Misato!"

"What? Shinji's not here to stop us anymore. I say we get drunk, have ice cream for dinner and watch a girly movie in our pyjamas."

Asuka gave her a hard stare. "Misato. Never have kids. I'm serious."

The older woman gave her an innocent look, "Well, you in or out?"

Asuka sighed, "I'm in minus the drunk and girly movie part."

Misato was relieved, "Good. I don't think we even have any girly movies here."

"Well we have that musical, Red Windmill."

"Why in the name of Nerv do we have that?"

"Well... Shinji really liked it."

Misato paused, "... Yeah that sounds like Shinji."

Asuka nodded, standing up, "It really does, doesn't it?"

* * *

Shinj slowly walked to a familiar door.

This was something he had to do before he went back to his teacher's home. He breathed deeply, remembering all the times he had been to this door.

He conjured up embarrassing details, and a few ones of shock at the state of the first girl's bedroom he had seen in his life. A slight redness passes across his cheek as he recalled the time she had walked out the bathroom, still damp from the shower, clad in nothing but a towel.

This girl had been present at some of the lowest points in his life, often just a silent companion to him, her mere presence giving him comfort in his darkest times.

He owed her a great deal.

This was, after all, the first girl he had any significant connection to. Some onlookers, he knew, chose to see that connection as romantic feelings. But Shinji knew it was more the draw of something familiar and strangely nostalgic, as if he'd known her for much longer than their time together would suggest.

He raised his hand to knock on the door.

He owed her an explanation, if nothing else.

* * *

Rei lay on her bed, fully clothed in her school uniform, idly contemplating the vagaries of reality.

Most other girls would be wistfully staring at the ceiling, seeing in the textured patterns and light fixings their hopes, dreams, ambitions and fantasies. Their minds might wander across potential boyfriends, highlighting them as worthwhile pursuits along side good grades and what university suited them best.

In short, at the tender young age of fourteen they would be focused on the now, and future, the past being relatively foggy and small in comparison.

Not so for Rei.

For Rei the past was perhaps much more foggy, but a good deal bigger. Memories drifted like great ice bergs in the mist of her mind, threatening to sink her lonely consciousness with their sudden icy could see them, and sometimes feel them vividly as if they were a present occurrence. But most of the time they loitered on the edge of her waking mind, threatening and looming.

So she had a great deal to think about.

She was struggling to come to terms with the alien way these images of her past felt to her. They felt as though they belonged to someone else, and she had merely inherited them from some other source.

She rolled over, stretching and creasing her uniform with careless abandon. The clothes didn't feel like they belonged to her either. They carried her smell, and the fit her perfectly, right down to a slightly grazed part on the inner sleeve where she habitually caught it on her thumb when she put on the shirt. Never the less, she still felt as though she was wearing someone else's shoes.

Like the scars she felt across her body, there were invisible markings left around the room, significant things that she knew were missing. Maybe a chair was not quite in the right place, but she had no idea where to put it to make it better.

There was a bump on the wall at the head of her bed.

New people were moving in all the time now, despite the recent Nerv actions in the USA. People were once again attracted to the illusion of security offered by the Nerv geofront, even though the Angels had shown how weak a defence that could be.

But with the Angels defeated, Nerv had taken on an almost invincible reputation, with news channels reporting all clears and documentaries in the works about the Angel Wars and the Gallant Eva Pilots, who Had Given Up Everything To Save Mankind, as if the whole thing had been some kind of television drama. Happily the security division had kept the rabid media away from most personnel, in their usual subtle fashion.

There was another bump, this time from the opposite wall. Rei sighed. She wondered if her new neighbours knew just who they lived next to now, and just what they were doing by interrupting her valuable thinking time.

There was a knock at her door.

Evidently not, she thought to herself, relishing in the arrogance of her internal voice. She felt that it separated her from the shadowy memories of the other girl she was pretending to be.

She swung herself off her bed, and smoothed down her crumpled uniform before answering the door. She opened the door, and almost immediately the person who knocked started speaking.

"Er... hi!" said a boy she didn't recognise. He was around her age, with dark brown hair and blue eyes. And decidedly foreign.

She looked at him critically, curious and faintly annoyed by both his interruption and strange accent, "State your designation."

He blinked at her, taken back by the abruptness of her order. He reached slowly into his pocket and took out a little book. He flicked through quickly, but couldn't find what he was looking for. "Er," he said nervously, "Could you say that again? My Japanese isn't that good yet."

She raised an eyebrow worthy of Gendo, "What's your name?"

"Oh! My name is Arthur Cooper."

She nodded in acknowledgement of his name, and waited patiently for him to state his business. There was an awkward minute, as the boy waited for her to say something as well.

Since no comment was forthcoming, he nervously continued, "Um, you're Rei Ayanami right?"

"Yes."

"Major Katsuragi told me you were in this building. Um, I moved in today."

Rei nodded, and feeling some strange pressure to contribute ti the conversation added, "How are you related to Major Katsuragi?"

He looked blank, and again came out the little book, which Rei guessed was a phrase book. "How do you know her?" she asked more simply.

"Thanks," he said gratefully, "I'm the new pilot. From Britain," he added when she showed no reaction.

Truthfully Rei had not thought much about the new pilot, focused as she was on her new duties as pilot for Unit 01, and the developing situation with Shinji. Seeing him on her doorstep was more confusing than anything else. So, in her typically blunt fashion she sought to alleviate the confusion.

"What are you doing here?"

He smiled, probably because he could understand her without resorting to his phrasebook, or her rephrasing, "Well, I just moved in today, and I wanted to know if there were any good restaurants nearby."

Rei considered this, her hand still on the door handle. She did not really know if there were any places to eat around her building. She usually took her meals at the Nerv base mess hall, or school cafeteria, and had a large supply of instant noodles for the times when she didn't. But there was that thing she walked past every time she came back to her apartment, and she had seen it loitering in the small park outside again.

"There is a ramen cart in the park area next to this building."

Arthur smiled, "Thank you. I am really hungry."

Rei nodded, and started to close her door, assuming their business was done, but he suddenly stopped her, "Wait!"

"Yes?"

"Um. I was wondering if you would like to join me?"

Rei looked at him, for a few seconds confused by the question, and then felt the blood rush to her cheeks as she began to think about the social implications of a boy asking a girl for a meal, alone at night.

He obviously saw the colour on her face, guessed what she was thinking, and began backpedaling as fast as his limited Japanese would allow, "Ah, no, not like... er... I mean, because we are both pilots and... um, maybe we should get to know each other better, and..." he broke down speaking English to himself in a berating tone.

He sighed, and straightened up, "Sorry. Thank you telling me about the cart. Goodbye," he said in a forced calm tone. He threw up a salute, realised what he had just done, span around and walked away as fast as he dared, glaring at his hand as though it had betrayed him.

Rei watched him head towards the elevator, and realised she was hiding a little behind her door, as if it could shield her from the social embarrassment that had just happened.

Thoughtfully she closed the door behind her, and went to sit on her bed.

It was strange how the new pilots always sought her out. Even Nagisa had come to find her, and she had some vague, shadowy memories of Asuka introducing herself to her at school.

Each encounter had left a different impression. In Asuka's case it had been irritation, and in Nagisa's, open dread and intimidation. Not since her encounter with Shinji and the ID card incident had a first meeting with a new pilot elicited feelings of embarrassment.

She stared at the wall opposite her, feeling her stomach rumble. Talking about the ramen cart had left her thinking about her own dinner, and for some reason the idea of instant noodles was suddenly unpalatable. And it did seem foolish that she should eat the dried variety when fresh noddles were easily available.

And the British pilot had a point. They would be working together, and that would be made easier with prior social interactions. True, Asuka had suggested the same thing on their first meeting, but the boy hadn't irritated her with demands of friendship, claiming convienice as an excuse to bother her.

She stood up and headed to her door.

If anything, this different reaction to the situation would distance her from the old borrowed memories. And that was worth pursuing.

* * *

Shinji stood in front of the now open door of his teacher's next door neighbour's house, the cool mountain evening air relieving some of the stifling pressure he felt. He scratched the back of his head nervously, the light inside flooding out onto the street behind him.

The girl stood in front of him, slackjawed and stunned.

She was shorter than him, although they were the same age, her mid-length dark hair tied into two little pony tails held low behind her neck. She had a slightly chubby, rounded face, giving her otherwise plain face a cuteness that accentuated the innocent aura that surrounded her.

He knew that she usually wore contacts, but now, as Shinji had seen before, the wide brown eyes were shielded behind some comfortable pink, but thinly framed glasses. He remembered the day when they helped her pick out those glasses. It was the day before he received the letter from his father, with the simple summons to Tokyo-3.

Since the mountains were a lot cooler than the city, people tended not to waste money on air conditioners, but in the near perpetual Japanese summer it was still hot enough to warrant the loose fitting t-shirt and very thin shorts she wore now, as she was clearly not expecting any company other than her family.

She tried to stammer a few words at him, but they wouldn't come out, the faint smell of shampoo and sweet soap wafting out from her. She must have recently been in the bath.

She was expecting him least of all.

Shinji smiled awkwardly, "Hi Emiko."

She still could not respond.

"Um... I'm back..."

He voice finally returned to her, and as her parents came up behind her to find out who was at the door, she finally responded to him.

"...Shinji?"

**To be continued...**

A/N: Gamble gamble gamble. In this part of the story we take some steps in plot development that aren't necessarily natural conclusions from episode 24. Steps like this were taken before, but since we're moving out of the introductory arc, the characters are going to start making some real decisions about the direction of the plot.

Also moving away from the introductory arc, and settling easily into the (relatively) happy romantic comedy arc. As an analogue to the series, this is about the time when Asuka showed up, and everything got a whole lot more light hearted.

End of Arc Omake to follow, and a review response will be attatched to that.

Massive thanks to the two guys who reviewed, you guys are totally awesome. Seriously, kept me happy even on the 12th hour of my Sunday shift. I'm still a petty man though, and would love another review! So please, don't hold back! I'll even take a flame, and relish the opportunity to thoroughly discuss and defend my work... my arrogance is like Asuka's and knows no bounds!

And now, cut to Misato...

* * *

Misato smiled happily at the couple singing on the screen in front of her. The warmness from the alcohol was mingling delightfully with the frosty ice cream, and she felt an unabashed wave of contentment override the sadness of Shinji leaving. Sprawled out comfortably on the sofa with just her pyjamas on, she felt all the stress of the day rise out of her body.

She burped, the gas taking the last of her tensions with it.

Nothing can quite match the contentedness of a hard working human with absolutely no work to do, and nothing to worry about for the next day.

Asuka, in a similarly mellow sprawl, little tub of ice cream tucked under one arm, and spoon clutched in hand, was digging mercilessly through the cream.

Asuka looked up, "Hey Misato?"

"Mmm?" repsonded the Nerv officer dreamily.

"What are all those papers on the table anyway?"


End file.
